Kidnapped
by twice the trouble
Summary: While out on a mission, Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, and Kiba are taken captive by a mysterious new group with an interesting plan for world domination. But things get even more interesting when they find out and exactly how they fit into this plan. Naruto/Hinata
1. Chapter 1

Hello and welcome to my story. It's not my best but I figured that some of you might like it.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1

No, I don't own Naruto...if I did, I think I would be more addicted to ramen than I already am.  
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NARUTO

I was having trouble opening my eyes and couldn't figure out the reason behind it. I also couldn't understand why I had such a weird dream. Normally my dreams involved Sakura somehow, usually with the two of us going out on some kind of date with maybe a kiss or two before all was done. But this dream didn't have her in it at all. It was about ramen. I was just sitting there eating a cup of ramen when it started to grow. At first I didn't mind too much, I figured that it just meant that I had more ramen to eat. But then, about the time it was the same size as me it came alive. The noodles shot out of the cup and wrapped themselves around my arms and legs like I was going to be its captive. Then they picked me up and as it grew larger, a huge mouth appeared. I then found myself being lowered into said mouth and just as those sharp teeth were about to close around me, I woke up.

I've had this dream before but it was only when I was knocked out for a while but I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what had happened to knock me out. Was it due to overworking myself on a new technique? I did that a lot but I couldn't remember developing a new one lately. For a moment I feared maybe the fox had come out to play. It would have explained why I was having trouble remembering, but I hadn't run into anything that would have set me off so it just wasn't possible. The last thing I remembered was going on a mission with Sakura, Hinata, Kiba, and his extremely large dog, Akamaru then…

My eyes shot open when I remembered the ninjas. Our mission was supposed to be a simple B rank mission. We were only needed to assure the safety of a small town lord that was passing through the lands of fire to the land of waves. He had personal guards and all but he was an overly cautious man. I called him the Twitchy guy because the man jumped at every little sound, thinking it was a group of thieves that wanted to steal the little bit of gold he had with him. Kiba said he was just paranoid. We were barely five miles outside the land of fire when the attack happened. There were so many ninjas, no matter how many each of us took out there had been several more ready to take their place. Eventually we had been knocked unconscious. So that was the reason I had my dream.

I sat up and was on my feet before I realized how dizzy I was and fell back to the floor with a thud.

"N-Naruto-kun!" I heard Hinata say as I blinked a couple times.

"Itai." I said slowly rubbing my head where I hit it when I fell.

"Baka, are you trying to knock yourself out again?" Kiba asked, sounding as if he was on the grumpy side of things. Good thing his voice was far from me.

"Careful, Naruto. You're still disoriented from being knocked out. You shouldn't try and stand until you're not dizzy anymore." Sakura warned from the same direction dog-boy's was.

"Maybe you should have told him that _before _he got up and found out for himself."

"Kiba, I understand that you're worried about Akamaru. But that is no reason to be so nasty towards everyone else."

"My dog could be dead and you want me to watch my words? Well, I'm sorry if there are a few more important things on my mind than playing nicey-nice with my comrades!"

"You can't do anything about it now, can you?" There was silence for a bit before Sakura spoke again. "Akamaru can take care of himself. He's probably halfway to the village by now in order to get us reinforcements. So let's worry less about him and more about now we're going to get out of these cages."

"Cages?" I opened my eyes and sat up again to see what they were talking about. Turns out we were in a dark room, locked in two separate cages. One had me and Hinata, the other held Sakura and Kiba. "Sakura-chan! Those asshole ninjas put us in cages!"

"Yes Naruto, we know." She answered looking back at me again.

"With bars!"

"Most cages come with bars now a days." She was starting to sound a little annoyed now but I was kind of ignoring it. Instead I got to my feet and despite the fact that the world was spinning faster than it should, I made my way over to the door. I gave it a shake to try and open it.

"They locked us in!"

"People tend to do that when they don't want their prisoners to escape." I didn't quite notice the warning tone in her voice.

"We need to get out of here!"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK WE'VE BEEN DOING WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, BAKA?!" I waited for her fist to connect with my face, but when that didn't happen, I peeked to see her angrily searching for something to throw at me. It was then that I realized that her cage was too far away for her to reach me. I grinned slyly as I thought that maybe these cages weren't such a bad thing after all. I could say whatever stupid thing I wanted without getting hit for it.

"Hey Sakura-chan, do you think they'll give us ramen?"

"Naruto!" She yelled as she looked around more frantically. "What would they give us ramen!?"

"I don't know that's why I was asking you." Her search intensified as she got even more angry. I found this hilarious and was grinning like an idiot, until I saw her make eye contact with something behind me, which made her grin.

"Hinata! Hit Naruto for me!" I spun around to see the girl's eyes go wide and her face start to turn red. "Just once! His brain needs a jumpstart!" Hinata sputtered a bit, like she was trying to say something. But before she could get the words out, a door at the end of the hall opened and several men came in. There were three of them. The one in the middle was obviously in charge. His dark hair was slicked back and his dark robes looked like an Akatsuki coat without the red clouds or the high collar. With our previous conversation forgotten, we instinctually got into defensive stances.

"So you're all finally awake. Good. Now I can give you all the rules and regulations." The leader said to us, sounding kind of bored.

"Who the hell are you!?" I demanded angrily.

"First rule, no questions."

"I ain't listening to your stupid—" one of the men made a quick hand signal and with a bold of lightning, I went flying across the cell into the brick wall behind me.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata exclaimed, I blinked and saw her hovering over me with a worried look on her face. I gave my head a little shake to get rid of the static, and sat up to glare at him. I didn't dare try and stand up considering I couldn't feel my own feet let alone stand on them.

"Second rule, take these rules as seriously as you would your own life." he continued as if nothing happened. Everyone stayed quiet to keep from being zapped themselves. I would have said something if I could think of anything to say. Plus, I'm pretty sure that if I did say something, there was the possibility that Hinata got caught in the crossfire. I might not care if I get hurt but there is no way I will let my comrades get hurt too, especially her. She was always hurt so easily, she's so…breakable. I mean, come on! She was almost killed in the chunin exams by her cousin. I didn't want her to almost die here as well. So I kept quiet and listened to those moronic rules.

"Rule number three, you will not try and escape. It's a pain to find unique genetic traits that you might possess. Rule number four, there is no need to hope for a rescue, none of your friends can find this place. None ever have before." He paused for a moment, to let us think on what he said. To tell you the truth, I didn't believe him. Plus, I'm pretty sure that those others that tried to find this place, never had Akamaru on their side.

"And the most important rule, rule number five is that my word is law. You disobey me and be prepared to feel a massive amount of pain. There will not be any permanent damage to yourselves, of course. But I assure you, it WILL be painful." I got to my feet, a bit curious about what he meant by painful. Making sure I was a pretty good distance away from Hinata, I opened my big mouth again to see what he had in store.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him, the shocking one from before went to make another hand signal but his boss stopped him. "If that's all you got than I think you're crazy to think you can control us with it. I've been hit by stuff more powerful than that and STILL won in the end."

"That is not even the least of the powers at my disposal." He said with a smirk that could freeze people in an instant. "So I suggest that you do not test me or you will find out for yourself."

"If you say so." I turned my back to them, mostly to hide my hand signal than anything else. "Kage bushin no jutsu." I said, not really yelling, but not trying to whisper either. About a hundred of my clones popped into existence outside the cell. They immediately attacked the three of them, using several different of my special jutsus including several rasengans and a few different wind techniques I had picked up from Asuma before he died. Unfortunately it took the three of them only about a minute to take them all out, without the leader having to do anything.

"So there's a fighter among you."


	2. Chapter 2

Hey, me again. Here's another chapter. Thanks for the reviews.

Hope you enjoy :),

Trouble 1  
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HINATA

"Damn straight!" Naruto said as he spun around to look at him again. "You wanna know why? Because I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage and I refuse to take orders from some jerk like—" He cut off as soon as their eyes meet.

It was just like that, one moment Naruto was doing what he always did when faced with an enemy, start a fight and insult his captors when he suddenly stopped. His eyes went wide as they glazed over. For almost a full minute he just stood there like he was caught in some type of genjutsu. But even after we tried to release it, he still just stood there. Then he let out a strangled cry and fell to the ground. Afraid of what might have happened to him, I completely forgot myself and ran to him. When I found that he wasn't breathing, I let out a scream. Sakura and Kiba were demanding to know what was going on with him and the men just left out the same door they came in from. But I wasn't really paying attention to them. For the first time in my life, I was yelling. Not whispering. Not speaking. Yelling. At Naruto!

Normally I couldn't say two words to him without going red or fainting, usually both. But here I was screaming his name, trying to get him to respond. I couldn't bare to accept that Naruto, the boy who always came out on top only because he refused not to, could die like this, locked in a cage like a feral animal.

Then, as soon as we heard the door shut, there was a poof and Naruto was gone. Before any of us could figure out what was going on, a shadow in the corner moved and Naruto stepped out, looking fine.

"Holy crap. I'm glad I wasn't on the receiving end of that." He said, making me feel so relieved that I threw my arms around his neck in a tight hug. Half a second after doing this I realized exactly WHAT I was doing and darted a couple feet away from him, after letting go of course. I could feel my face heat up as Naruto just stood there with a confused look on his face. Sakura looked a combination of relieved, worried, and surprised all topped with this knowing smile that I couldn't figure out. Kiba was just staring at me like I had grown a second head.

"Naruto, what was that?" Sakura asked him as I tried to hide from everyone's gaze.

"I have no idea. One moment I'm talking, then next I'm getting hugged by Hinata." He said, making my face turn even redder as he looked at me again. I'm pretty sure if he didn't stop staring at me I was going to faint.

"Are we even sure that's Hinata?" Kiba asked as he stared at me too. "Normally she can't get near him without fainting."

"I noticed that. I wonder why."

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No."

"You really ARE a baka."

"So you know why?"

"Yeah, everyone does."

"Except me?!"

"Yes."

"Why don't I know!?"

"Because we're all either waiting for you to figure it out or for her to finally tell you that she—" I watched as a fist connected with his face, knocking him into the wall. Then she picked up a chunk of the wall that just came loose, and chucked it at Naruto. It hit his head and he fell to the ground, then jumped back to his feet, a new lump peeking out of his hair.

"HEY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

"YOU BAKA! I DIDN'T MEAN THAT!" Sakura yelled at them. It was actually quite comical, if she didn't look like she was going to kill someone. "What happened BEFORE that?!"

"I wanted to find out what he had up his very large sleeves." Naruto answered, shyly rubbing his head.

"So you LET him hit you with that jutsu?!"

"No! I'm not THAT stupid!"

"That's debatable." Kiba whispered mostly to himself, despite the fact that Naruto could hear him.

"What was that, dog boy!?" Naruto demanded angrily, Kiba's hair pricked like an angry dogs. He was about to say something back to Naruto but Sakura started tossing a piece of brick in one hand while holding a similar one in the other. Anything they were about to say was quickly forgotten.

"What did you do Naruto?"

"I switched myself with one of my shadow clones while they were fighting." He answered her like it was obvious. "I just didn't want to get hit by whatever he was throwing personally."

"That was actually smart." Sakura said in a surprised voice.

"Why do you sound so surprised!?" he demanded, he opened his mouth to say more but she tossed the brick in her hands in an obvious threat. He promptly shut up and changed the subject back. "Anyways, as I was saying, you don't want to get hit with that."

"Why? What happened?"

"I don't quite know." He said, probably thinking of how to describe the experience. Now with the attention off me, my face had cooled down, and I wasn't in danger of fainting. So I was more focused on what he was saying. "Nothing happened, it was just a lot of pain. There was nothing wrong with the clone. Physically that is."

"B-but it w-wasn't breathing." I whispered, saying something for the first time since he appeared in the corner.

"Really? Huh, you're right." He said, looking up like he was trying to remember something. "I think he was just surprised."

"You mean he went into shock." Sakura suggested.

"No, he wasn't shocked."

"That's not what…oh never mind. What was it like?"

"Um, it's hard to explain." He scratched his head in thought. "It was kind of like getting thousands of cuts with a kunai, getting struck by lightning, getting stabbed multiple times with a seriated blade, and being set on fire all at the same time."

"That bad?" Kiba asked with an unbelieving tone.

"Yes."

"It can't be that bad."

"You wanna try it yourself?" he asked becoming annoyed again. "Be my guest."

"You better not!" Sakura said, a death grip on a brick. "Because if you stop breathing I refuse to resuscitate either one of you."

"'Resuscitate?'" Naruto asked stupidly.

"She means mouth to mouth." Kiba said slyly, and I suddenly had a bad feeling where this conversation was going. I watched as Naruto's eyes lit up with recognition. "The Kiss of Life, or as Lee likes to call it, the Kiss of YOUTH."

"Ooooh! Hey Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan! If I stopped breathing, would you 'resuscitate' me?"

"No, I'd let you both die." He suddenly looked crest fallen.

"But Sakura-chan, why are you so mean?"

"Naruto, even if I wanted to, which I DON'T, I couldn't because you're in a different CELL than me!"

"I'm sure Hinata would, if you needed it." Kiba piped up, wiggling his eyebrows playfully. I turned even redder than before as Naruto got a confused look on his face again.

"Why would she do that?" he asked again.

"Never mind. You're too dense to get it."

"Get what?"

"Exactly." He pointed out, shaking his head in disbelief. "You are completely hopeless."


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for the reviews :) I like reviews, but I'm not going to beg for them since I myself am not a good review writer. As for the story, I had a bit of a hard time writing it because it kept changing on me. Not trying to make any excuses, only saying that if the story seems a little transparent, that's why.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1

ps. I seem to have forgotten the disclaimer so here's an extra.

I really, REALLY don't own Naruto. Really. I don't.  
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SAKURA

"Ok then." I piped up before Naruto could say anything more. "Let's get back to the problem at hand here."

"But we still haven't figured out the whole Kiss of Life thing yet."

"That's not the problem at hand, is it?" I asked, starting to get annoyed at him again.

"Well, it is to me." He argued, oblivious to my tone. "What if I get hit with that pain thingy again and stop breathing like my clone did?"

"Are you planning to do so?"

"No, but you never know."

"Well, I'd say that if you're stupid enough to get hit by it again than you don't deserve to be resuscitated."

"But that wouldn't be your choice, would it? You said yourself that I'm in a different cell than you." Naruto said after a moment of thought. He then turned around and looked straight into Hinata's eyes.

"Would you kiss me?" he asked sincerely, causing the poor girl to turn beet red and faint right on the spot. Naruto immediately began to freak out while Kiba was rolling on the floor laughing his pretty little head off.

"Great job, you made her faint." I said after a moment.

"But I didn't do anything!"

"So you think." I said under my breath and Naruto tried to wake her up, but wasn't doing a very good job at it.

"Just set her up against the wall. She'll wake up in her own time." I told him with an exasperated tone in my voice.

"Yeah, she'll be awake in a few minutes, ten at the most." Kiba agreed, his laughing fit finally calming down to the point where he could speak. He was currently sitting back up as he wiped tears from his eyes. "We can figure out what to do once she wakes up."

"Good idea." I agreed as Naruto sat Hinata against the wall and settled next to her to wait for her to wake up. "I'm going to need a second smart person to help plan."

"What was that supposed to mean?!" Both Naruto and Kiba demanded simultaneously. I just smirked and sat down on the ground, ignoring the pair of them. I listened to them grumble thinking that we had better get out of here quickly or I was going to go insane.

Once Hinata woke up, we all put our heads together and tried to come up with an escape plan. Unfortunately we fell asleep before we had come up with anything. It wasn't that we didn't spend a lot of time, it was just that everything we came up with was useless.

Naruto had suggested that I punch the bars out but they made them out of a special metal that adsorbed chakra. Meaning, no matter how much you pumbled them, nothing was going to happen. So if I punched it, all that would have happened was me breaking my fist.

Kiba said we should break out through the brick wall, but that was no use. Hinata told us that we were so deep underground, that even she couldn't see the surface.

And that's how all our plans fizzled out like that. We sat there planning until Naruto passed out from brain overload and Kiba was seconds away from beating his head against the bricks in order to follow suit. So I told everyone, well, everyone that was still conscious, that we were going to take a break and continue when we woke up.

So I laid down and watched as Kiba curled himself in the corner, looking incomplete without Akamaru curled next to him. Hinata laid down a few feet away from Naruto, far enough not to embarrass herself but still close enough for anyone, other than Naruto that is, to tell she liked him.

Everyone was asleep long before I could even close my eyes. My brain was just too busy trying to think of a possible plan to rest for even a moment. I tried to calm my mind down by watching my comrades sleep. I tried watching Kiba first but that didn't help much. He was so restless that I'm surprised he was even able to sleep. I figured this was due to the fact Akamaru was MIA with his fate unknown. He was taking that hard to begin with. Even without his earlier outburst it was obvious. He had been raging on Naruto a little more than necessary the whole time we were planning.

After that thought, I decided to see how the other two were sleeping, and was a little surprised at what I saw. Sometime between when Hinata went to sleep and I checked on them last, she had crawled right up next to Naruto. It was cute, the two of them laying together like that, with her curled up in a ball next to him, her head on one of his sprawled out arms.

If I had to guess what happened, I would say that sometime after she went to sleep she got cold and subconsciously moved closer to the warmest thing in the cell, Naruto. But despite the logical explanation behind the action, it didn't make it any less of a cute site, especially when Naruto's arm came up around her shoulders as he slept. I had to cover my mouth to keep from aww-ing like a fangirl. They were just so perfect for each other. Naruto needed someone that could see his strengths and except his weaknesses. And Hinata needed someone that saw her as something other than a burden and could protect her when she needed it. They could easily take care of each other for the rest of their lives. That is if Naruto ever really realizes this and gets over his childhood infatuation with me.

It was thinking about those two that I finally slipped into sleep. Just as I was doing just that, I could have sworn that I heard the cell door open but I was too far into unconsciousness to really give it much thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Hi, me again. Thanks for the reviews everyone. I'm quite excited that people are actually reading this. Some of you are getting ahead of me here but that's alright, I like the enthusiasm. :)

Again, thanks for the reviews, and hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
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KIBA

To tell you the truth, I had a bit of a hard time sleeping that night. All that was popping up in my dreams was the different sinareos that Akamaru could have gotten himself into. None of them were as cheerful as the one Sakura suggested though. Most of them involved his death. I was kinda relieved when I finally woke up, until I realized what I woke up to. They were gone. Sometime in the night those bastards took them. Hinata and Sakura. Not Naruto, unfortunately. Why they couldn't take him instead I'll never know. Speaking of the annoying prick, he was still sound asleep murmuring something about a giant cup of ramen.

"Naruto!" I whispered loudly, trying to wake the idiot up.

"…five more minutes…" was all that was comprehendible from his answer. So I figured that the only way he was going to wake up was that if he was hit with something. So, I picked up a piece of brick, weighed it in my hand before throwing it as hard as I could at his head. Of course my throw wasn't nearly as powerful as Sakura's would have been, but it got him awake real quick.

"What the hell Sakura!? What'd I do this time?" He shot up angrily and looked around for the culprit but soon became confused when he couldn't find her. "Sakura-chan?"

"She's not here baka." I said angrily.

"But I got hit with a rock."

"And I'll throw another one at you if you don't start focusing for once in your life!"

"Wait, YOU hit me…"

"Didn't you hear what I said? SAKURA'S GONE!"

"Where?"

"Well they didn't just walk out by themselves."

"Wait, you think the ninjas took her while we were sleeping?" I nodded and he leaped to his feet angrily. "You were supposed to be keeping an eye on her to make sure they didn't do something like this! I trusted you to watch over my comrade!"

"Same here. But I don't see Hinata around here either, do you?" Naruto paused, his anger leaving him as quickly as it had come. He quickly looked around again, noticing for the first time that his cell mate was gone as well.

"They took her too?"

"Yes." I answered quietly. I might have still been furious but I couldn't take it out on him, no matter how much I wanted to do so. I was just as much at blame as he was, the only difference is that he was still asleep when I woke.

He dropped back to the floor, looking genuinely upset by this news, more than when he found out about Sakura. I found myself wondering why. He had more a connection with Sakura than with my teammate. If I had to guess, it was probably due to the fact that he considered her HIS responsibility to keep safe and he had failed in doing so. It had to be, after all he was still clueless about her feelings towards him so how could he possibly return them.

"What are we going to do?" he asked as quietly as I had. Looking down for a rare moment.

"Sit and wait."

"There has to be something!" He exclaimed, the fire coming back into his eyes. "Something other than that!"

"It's the only thing we can do." I answered, sharing his exasperation for the situation. "You never know, they could bring them back." Naruto didn't say anything, he only gave me a glair and turned his back towards me.

"You better not be planning anything, Naruto." I said to him, knowing he wouldn't give up that easily. "Naruto?" I called when he didn't answer.

"I'm warning you, don't do anything!" when he didn't answer again I knew that whatever he was doing there would be no stopping him. "Fine, then just don't do anything stupid. Though that might be too much to ask for, since it's YOU we're talking about." Unfortunately he wasn't even paying attention at this point so he never heard a word I said.

It was several hours before the men came back, carrying the two missing girls over their shoulders like they were sacks of potatoes. And for the first time since he woke up, Naruto moved. He got to his feet and as I was busy demanding to know what they did to them he just stood there, his face calm and his eyes closed. Even as I yelled at the men and banged on the bars, he was acting like nothing was going on at all, it was pissing me off. But before I could start ripping him a new one as well, the man in a large coat, spoke.

"Step away from the door." He said calmly to the both of us. Naruto stepped backwards till his back was touching the brick wall. I refused to move, instead I gave death glairs at my suddenly useless teammate, which he couldn't see. "I see at least one of you has taken my warning seriously. I suggest you should as well." I ignored him again and focused my attention on Naruto.

"What the hell are you doing?! I thought you were braver than this!" he didn't do anything, not even flicker an eyelid. He just stood there like he had been turned to stone or something. I didn't like it, but before I could say so, I was thrown back against the bricks by a bold of lightning.

"Don't move or you'll get hit with an even stronger one." The coated guy said to me as the other two carried our comrades to their previous cells. Naruto didn't move as they put the key into the lock and turned it. He didn't even twitch as it clicked unlocked or when the hinges squeaked open. I had just started thinking that I was wrong about his intentions when I heard several loud POPS and suddenly many of the easily-overlooked items around the room transformed into Narutos.

My jaw dropped as they began to attack the men in the room. As I watched several of them broke off, two quickly grabbing the girls as the men dropped them while another grabbed the keys without being noticed. That one rushed over to my cell and proceeded to try and find the right key for the lock. While he was busy the others continued their attack but something strange was going on. Every single one of them had their forehead protectors over their eyes, in other words, they were all fighting blind. Even the original slipped his over his own eyes and joined he fight.

At first I couldn't figure out why the heck he was doing this, as far as I could see, it just gave him a very large disadvantage. But I saw the main guy looking frustrated as he glared at the clones and knew what he was doing. The man preformed his pain jutsu by eye contact, by covering his eyes and fighting blind, he couldn't be affected by it. It was actually a really good idea, which made it that much more surprising considering it came from Naruto.

The clone with the keys was suddenly hit with a shrunkin while his back was turned, making him poof out of existence and drop to the keys to the floor an inch out of my reach. That's when it all went downhill. You see when he first started his attack, he was winning, more due to the fact that he had surprised him than the pain guy couldn't use his pain jutsu. But apparently that wasn't the only thing he had up his sleeves. He made a few hand signals and these large, dark ribbons came out from under his coat and wrapped themselves around one of the Narutos. He gave out a cry and poofed away. The man frowned and set the ribbons chasing after another. This one evaded the ribbons as he searched for the keys the other dropped, but those ribbons kept getting in the way.

The two with the girls, put them on the ground in order to help out the other. But it proved to be fruitless when the ribbons split up, grabbing all three at once and squeezing them simultaneously. Two of them poofed instantly, leaving the third crying out in pain as his bones were being crushed. As those ribbons tightened around him the other clones started poofing away, causing me to realize that the man had the real Naruto in his grasp.

"There you are." He said with an angry tone in his voice. "I knew the real one was in there somewhere. You can't hide from me." Naruto continued to writhe in pain as the man spoke, though I think it was mostly to himself.

"You just don't seem to understand the rules as well as I thought you did. Do you need another lesson?" My friend didn't say anything, though I could tell that he really wanted to at least flick him off, but couldn't exactly do that with his arms pinned. "No, that wouldn't work for you now, will it? I should have seen it earlier, your one of those persistent idiot types. A couple lessons won't stop you from trying, no, I'm going to have to do something else to keep you in line." The man stood there for a moment thinking.

"I guess I'm going to have to use one of those. I didn't think I'd even need to THINK about using one on a teenage shinobi. I wonder if you'll be able to survive it. If you're anything like the other two, I highly doubt you would." The man manipulated his ribbons, handing his captive over to one of his cronies then let his ribbons recede back into his coat. When the ribbons came off, Naruto didn't even have enough strength to fight back. I'm not saying he didn't try; only that he wasn't able to do much.

"Take him to the examination room." He ordered the one man then turned to the other one, telling him to finish putting the girls back in their appropriate cells.

"What about the other one?" the man holding Naruto asked, obviously indicating me.

"Leave him there for now. I have a feeling that I'm going to need all my focus for this one." He turned and walked away, not even looking to see if the other one was following him. As the other man put the girls in the cages I thought that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to wish he had been taken earlier. He might be lively now but the man said himself, there was no guarantee that he was going to be alive when he came back.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey everyone, I'm just going to say thanks for the reviews and get on with the story. So, thanks!

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

SAKURA

There was no way of knowing how long it's been since they took Naruto. I know I wasn't exactly conscious at the time, but Kiba told us everything that happened while we were out. Hinata was taking it kinda hard. The only thing she said since she woke up was "Where's Naruto?" and then Kiba started explaining everything. He said we had been out for maybe an hour at the most, but there's no real way of knowing. Anything that could have helped us tell what time it was, was taken when we were put in these things.

He also told us that the man said something about taking him to an examination room. I could tell he was holding something back by the grave look in his face. But I'm sure he has a good reason for not disclosing the additional information he has. I could see that whatever it was had him extremely worried for Naruto so I could only imagine how Hinata would feel about it. She was scared for him already, despite the fact that I keep telling her that everything was going to be fine.

Kiba kept himself in the corner, his face displaying one negative emotion after another. Eventually, after a while of wondering what he knew that was causing this, I went and sat down next to him.

"Kiba, what's wrong?"

"You mean other than the obvious?" he almost sneered, at the moment he looked angry, but that would change in a moment.

"Yes, other than the obvious."

"Nothing, I'm just ducky."

"Alright, let me rephrase that. What's wrong with Naruto?" I asked seriously, lowering my voice so Hinata couldn't hear me.

"The ninjas took him." He said slowly. "You already know that."

"Yes, and I also know that you didn't tell us the whole problem or you wouldn't be over here seriously worrying about his safety." He opened his mouth to protest but I interrupted him.

"I know you didn't want to say anything in front of Hinata because you didn't want to worry her more. But whatever it is, I can handle it."

"Can you?" he asked mysteriously.

"Hit me."

"Naruto might not be coming back." I gave him a strange, startled look and he continued. "When they took him he said he was going to use some type of devise on him. I don't know what it is but he said something about how he doubted Naruto would live through it."

"What?"

"It's not like when you and Hinata were taken. The boss guy himself said that he 'wondered' if he would be able to 'survive' it. And he didn't look like he cared one way or another."

I was silent for a few seconds, trying to come up with something to say as well as trying to comprehend what he told me myself.

"You shouldn't trust what that man says." I told him confidently. "He doesn't know Naruto like we do. He'll be fine, I'm sure of it."

"Why do you think that?"

"Well, he isn't called the most unpredictable, knuckle ninja for nothing. You have to learn to expect the unexpected with him and even then you never know."

"Huh?"

"If they think he won't survive, then he will. He doesn't like taking orders, so he will defy them at every chance he gets."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Plus, it's been proven before, he's too stubborn to die." This made him chuckle a bit.

"True ." He relented with a sad smirk. "For most of the fights he's involved in, the only reason he wins is because he doesn't know when to give up."

"You got that right." I said, my turn to chuckle. "Plus, if worse comes to worse we can always rely on the Kyubi to keep him alive."

"But wouldn't it cause it to come out?"

"And wouldn't I like to be a fly on the wall when they try to control him then." We both started laughing as we visualized the man trying to wrap a ribbon around the angry kyubi's neck. But our laughter was cut short when the front door opened. In came the main man along with his two lackeys, one of which had an unconscious Naruto over his shoulder.

All three of us were on our feet in a second, pressed against the bars soon afterwards.

"Naruto!" Hinata cried out. Looking at him closely, I saw that he wasn't in any worse shape than he was when he left. But he was unconscious, which worried me.

"Back away from the door." The goon without Naruto ordered Hinata but she didn't look like she heard them. "Away from the door!" he said again, but she still didn't move. All she did was stare at her crush. I noticed the man start to make the hand signs for the lightning strike and I panicked. When it comes to taking damage, Hinata was probably the weakest one of us. If she took a strike like that, I don't know what it would do to her, and considering the fact that the only medical ninja we have is in a different cage than her, I didn't want to find out.

"Hinata!" I yelled at her, causing her to jump and look this way. "Back up!" she looked over to the man, saw the hand signals and quickly scurried back towards the bricks.

"Smart girl." He commented, but I was unsure whether he was talking about me or her, but truthfully I didn't care. I was too worried about my comrade to think about much else. He looked at Hinata and spoke again. "Now don't try anything or you won't have to worry about your boyfriend, only his corpse."

Her eyes went wide, and she looked like she was trying to blush at his assumption, and pale at his threat at the same time. She straightened up, making herself look like a statue. He must have expected the fact that she wasn't going anywhere; he selected a key and opened the door to let the other one to toss Naruto in before he closed it. I was about to yell at the man for just dropping him like that when the boss spoke.

"Tsuki, you are not to throw him like a burlap sack." He stated calmly. The man, just looked at him, shocked.

"But sir…"

"I don't care how you treat the others but this one's special. He will be quite useful to us in the future."

"Yes sir." He said submissively. Then without another word they all turned and walked away. As soon as the door shut Hinata came to life and knelt at his side as me and Kiba pressed ourselves against the cage door.

"Is he alright?" I asked quickly as she checked his pulse.

"H-He's breathing and his h-heart's beating r-regularly." She said quietly. Kiba and I made sure that she couldn't hear our relieved sighs at this.

"Is he hurt?"

"I-I don't know."

"You're going to have to check." She looked up at me, her eyes wide again.

"B-but…"

"Normally I would do it but there's no way I can get over there." She looked scared as she glanced between me and Naruto. "You just have to check for injuries, that's all." She was still hesitant to even touch him.

"Hinata, just use your byakugan." Kiba told her. "Then you can see if he's hurt without actually touching him."

"O-ok." She said, looking a little more comfortable with this option. She activated her jutsu and started to scan Naruto. Almost immediately after starting, her eyes went wide with shock. "What…" She began to look more franticly and before we could ask what was wrong she had forgotten her shyness and began to unzip his jacket.

"Hinata? What's—"I cut off as I saw through his mesh shirt, a piece of metal attached to his chest, right above where his sealing tattoo would be. It looked like a metal dining plate with claws digging into his chest. You could see some dried blood where they attached itself to him. I had never seen anything like this before, but I was getting a bad feeling about that thing.


	6. Chapter 6

Ok, first thing first, thanks for the reviews, they were great :). Second, i seem to be forgetting the disclaimer. Hope you guys don't mind because it's hard coming up with good ones. I'll probably just leave them off unless someone complains. I think you guys all know I don't own Naruto by now. :)

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

NARUTO

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the fact my head was pounding like it decided to start a rock band while I was out. I heard some voices saying something in the real world that was making my head hurt even more. I tried to tell whoever it was to be quiet but when I tried to talk, only a slurred sound came out. But the voice went quiet, which was good, until they started up again. Even louder. But I could understand them a little this time. They were saying my name and a whole bunch of incomprehensible mumbo jumbo. I wanted to put my hands over my ears but they felt like lead, I could barely wiggle my fingers.

Then there was one voice that told the other to shut up and they all went silent again. Then that voice started saying my name softly and saying something like they were asking me to wake up. A soft hand touched my cheek as she (because it had to be a she) told me it was time to open my eyes. So, despite to fact that I could have sworn that my eyelids were stapled shut, I felt then begin to struggle open. It was like I couldn't disappoint her so even when I probably would have felt better if I just went back to sleep, I pulled myself back into full consciousness before I even realized where I was waking up to.

Once my eyes were open, I found myself back in the cage with Hinata looking relieved besides me. I was also looking around for the owner of the voice I heard. It couldn't have been any of my teammates, Kiba was a guy and that wasn't a guy's voice, Sakura would have just hit me and Hinata was just too quiet. So I must have imagined it, but before I could feel let down by this realization, everyone started talking at once again. My head was still throbbing but that time I was able to move my arms and cover my ears, I didn't think I could actually speak right now so I didn't even try.

But despite the fact that I didn't even open my mouth someone knew what I wanted to say.

"Will you two be quiet! You're hurting his head!" then there was silence as we all stared at Hinata after her outburst. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she said as she realized just how loud her voice had been.

"Are you alright?" I looked at her, unsure of how to answer that. I wasn't even sure what happened to me, let alone if I'm alright. But her face became so worried that I immediately nodded my head even though this might not have been true. I couldn't have anyone worrying about me when there were worse things to be worrying about. "Are you sure?"

It took me a couple tries to croak out a "yeah" before I started coughing.

"Here, drink this." Hinata helped me sit up and prop myself against the brink before handing me a cup of water. But my hands were shaking so bad that if she didn't help me hold it, I would have dumped it on the floor. The water itself looked disgusting, and tasted even worse. But it was liquid and for some strange reason I was extremely thirsty, as I ended up drinking the whole thing. After that I could at least talk without losing a lung, so I asked them something that was kind of bugging me.

"What happened?" my voice still sounded a little scratchy, but at least I could be understood.

"What do you remember?" Sakura asked nicely, and if I didn't feel like crap I would have thought something was up.

"Uhh…you and Hinata were gone. You were brought back. I attacked them. Then Ribbons grabbed me with his…well…ribbons and took me away." I shuddered as I remembered what happened after that. I didn't want to remember anything about it, I just wanted to forget it. Those two were lucky they were unconscious for everything, I wasn't good enough to be put asleep. I only lost consciousness when they started attaching that thing on my chest.

"Anything else?" she asked gently. I debated telling them this even though I really didn't want to. I didn't think it would change anything if I kept it from them. But who knows, I could be missing something, I've done it several times before so it wouldn't surprise me. But…

"Naruto?" snapped out of my thoughts to see everyone looking worried. "Can you remember anything else?"

"No." I answered, deciding that it was best not to worry them. "I got knocked out afterwards." They looked at me skeptically but didn't seem to question it.

"So, what happened?" I asked again as Hinata handed me another cup of water. This time I was able to hold it myself without almost dropping it.

"Umm…not much really." Sakura said, and then it was my turn to give her an unbelieving look. She wasn't meeting my eyes so I knew something was up. I might not be very smart but I knew when my friends lying to me.

"Sakura-chan." I said, getting her to look at me. "Whatever it is, I can handle it. I'm going to be Hokage after all." I gave them a cheesy grin even if I didn't feel like smiling much. I saw Sakura give a reluctant look at Kiba who gave a shrug.

"You can't keep it from him forever." He pointed out. "I figure if he knows you're not telling him everything, then you should just tell him. Because it's either that or he figures out on his own. Which do you think will hurt him more?"

"Your right." She answered grudgingly then turned back towards me. "We don't know what they did to you in there but we know what it caused." She hesitated again.

"And…?" I asked, starting to get annoyed.

"During the time you were in there they attached a metal plate to your chest. It's…it's blocking your ability to use chakra." I was silent for a bit, trying to take all this in. No one spoke, they were all waiting for my reaction.

"What do you mean?" I asked quietly.

"F-from what I-I can see," Hinata whispered just as quietly. "T-that devise is putting s-something into your chakra n-network that i-is restricting your ability to use c-chakra."

"I don't understand."

"It's basically making your network act like a civilians." Sakura tried to explain, but I still didn't get what the two of them were trying to say. I thought I did but it just couldn't be that. "I think it's a more improved version of that machine from the Land of Snow."

"I don't…"

"You can't use jutsus." Kiba explained plainly, without any fluffy words to soften the blow. "That plate thing stops you from doing any sort of jutsu. As long as it's on your chest, no matter how much you store, your chakra can't be used."

"You mean…"

"It means no kage bushin, no rasingan, not even tree climbing or water walking. In other words, with that thing on, you're helpless."

"Kiba! Why are you being so mean to him!" I heard Hinata exclaim, but it sounded as if it were really far away. Kiba sounded even farther as he tried to explain to the pair of angry girls that that was the only way I would understand. He was right; all that beating around the bush crap only confused me. He had to tell me straight up, even if it hurt like hell. But the other two still couldn't see it. They were still arguing with him as I stared into my cup, not really seeing it.

My jutsu were what made me strong, they were what I needed to get Sasuke back and to eventually become hokage one day. But now they're gone, all of them stolen from me with that plate, how was I supposed to become a great ninja without them? How was I supposed to protect my precious people? Lee was a strong ninja even with only tijutsu at his disposal, but he's trained without jutsus his entire ninja career, no matter how determined I am I doubt I could pull that off if I tried. So that left only one option.

"Get it off." I said suddenly, making the other three stop in their tracks. "If it's doing what you say it is, then get the damn thing off so I can beat the crap out of the guys in there."

"That's the thing, Naruto. I'm not sure it CAN be removed." Sakura said gently. "From what Hinata's told me, installing that thing was a very dangerous procedure. The claws are imbedded in the exact center of your body, where the chakra forms. If they are taken out carelessly, even with YOUR healing rate, you will die. Even if you had it surgically removed it would be dangerous."

"I don't care. Just get it off!" I threw my cup to the ground, scattering the water across the floor.

"Even if I could do so safely, I've told you before, I can't even reach you! And don't you dare ask Hinata because she won't!" she said, finally losing her temper with me. No one spoke for a moment, until she calmed down and was able to continue more calmly. "When we get out of here, I'm sure Tsunade-shisho will come up with a safe way of removing it. But for now you're going to have to wait."

"But I can't wait! We don't have the time! I have to get you guys out and I can't do that like this!" everyone was silent again as they realized why I was upset. Apparently they thought that I was like this just because I couldn't use my jutsus, not because I couldn't use my jutsus to protect them.

"Naruto, it's not up to you to get all four of us out of here." Sakura pointed out.

"Yes it is." I insisted, even though I really didn't have a reason behind it. I just felt like it was my responsibility to keep my comrades safe, which meant getting them out of here. I normally felt like this to some extent, but ever since I got taken away and experimented on, I felt even stronger about it. I didn't want them to have to go through what I did. I can take it, they might not. I knew they wouldn't understand, mostly due to the fact that I didn't tell them everything. So I decided that it was best just to change the subject.

"How long was I out?" I asked, closing my eyes to prepare myself for the worst.

"We're not exactly sure. As far as we can tell they give us two meals a day and we've had five since you got back. So probably about two and a half."

"Did I miss anything?"

"Kiba was taken about three meals ago, while we were sleeping. He was brought back before we went to sleep without anything wrong." I looked up startled.

"Was he unconscious?"

"Yes that seems to be standard procedure." Sakura answered off hand. Hinata was giving me a weird look so I had to think of something quick.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." I covered, giving them a guilty smile. This answer seemed to work for them because they all sighed.

"You can't remember ANYTHING can you!?" Kiba exclaimed exasperated.

"Apparently not." I joked with a little laugh.

"Baka." He shook his head with a smile. I guess he was just glad that I wasn't being so doom and gloom anymore.

"N-Naruto?" I heard Hinata whisper. Figuring she was back to her quiet self, I turned to look at her. She was acting shy again, looking at the floor and fidgeting. "You s-should get r-rest, to get y-your s-s-strength up."

"But I was asleep for two days, why do I need anymore?"

"Because you were unconscious, not resting." Sakura pointed out. "If you don't rest you can't recover, and if you can't recover, we can't escape and you'll never be able to get that plate off."

"Good answer." A damp wind blew by, causing my bangs to tickle my nose, almost making me sneeze. It was strange because usually my hiate usually held them back. "Uh, guys. Where's my forehead protector?"

"How are we supposed to know? You came back without it." Kiba answered crossly. "In fact, we all did."

"They took our forehead protector!" I exclaimed. "Those bastards! Why would they want to take them?"

"How am I supposed to know!?" Kiba exclaimed angrily. "I can't see what that man's thinking!"

"It's probably some sort of ploy to convince us that we are no longer shinobi." Sakura pointed out.

"Now I'm REALLY going to pumble the guy!" I exclaim angrily. No one takes my hiate without a price.

"Not without rest, you won't." Sakura pointed out annoyed. "Now lay down and get some sleep before Hinata makes you sleep."

"She wouldn't do that!" I told them confidently. "Would you Hinata?"

"I-it would be f-for you own g-good." She whispered shyly. I gawked for a few seconds before I relented.

"Fine." I told them before handing the cup back to Hinata and lying down on the stone floor. "But if anything interesting happens I want to be woken up."

"Don't worry, we won't." Kiba said with a smirk. I gave him a glair that said, 'you better be joking' before I put my head down on something soft and closed my eyes. I was asleep before I could even wonder what it was.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey everyone. Thanks for the reviews. And yes, it is getting creepy but that's just the way this story is. That and when I get ticked my characters tend to suffer...I was ticked a lot writing this.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

KIBA

"Well, that went better than expected." I said as soon as we were sure that Naruto was asleep. We didn't have to wait long considering as soon as his head hit his makeshift pillow, AKA Hinata's rolled up jacket, he was snoring.

"I think he's hiding something." Sakura said suddenly. I was shocked for a moment, then all I could do was laugh. "What!"

"Have you forgotten who we're talking about?" I said between chuckles. "Naruto is unable to hide something even if he wanted to. I doubt he would even CONSIDER keeping a secret."

"I know that, which is why I say he's hiding something. He just doesn't seem right somehow."

"He DID just find out there's a possibility that he might never be able to be a ninja again. It's kinda expected for him to act a little off."

"You're probably right." She relented as she leaned back against the stone wall. "But you have to admit, he did seem to give in a little too easily."

"Maybe he knew there was nothing he could do." I suggested after a bit of thought.

"This is Naruto we're talking about, do you REALLY expect him to know these kind of things let alone give in to them?" She asked, successfully throwing my own logic back into my face. "Normally he'd say something along the lines of 'Of course there's a way and I'll beat those stupid ninjas to a bloody pulp until they tell me. Dattebayo!'"

"Too true." I said with a chuckle. We stayed silent for a while, each of us lost in our own thought while Naruto himself dreamed of a giant bowl of ramen, no doubt. "Well, we should probably get some sleep. Never know what will happen." I say as I lay down on the ground, sprawling out.

"You too, Hinata." Our other teammate jumped at the sound of her name. "You've barely blinked since Naruto has been brought back and now that he's woken up I think it's safe for you to get some shut eye as well."

"B-but they could c-come back and take us w-while we're s-sleeping again. They've d-done so twice b-before and I-I don't w-want them to take N-Naruto-kun away again."

"She has a point." Sakura agreed. "I'll stay on watch for a while and if I start to get tired or those ninjas come again I'll wake you guys up."

"Ok." We agreed as I saw Hinata curl up only about a foot away from Naruto. I thought it was a bit strange that she would get even that close to him. But considering the anxiety she was going through the past couple days, I must say, it was that much of a surprise. She probably needed reassurance that he was alright.

It took me a bit to fall asleep, but once I did, it felt like no more than a second before I was being startled awake by the door slamming shut. I shot up quickly, looking around. I saw Sakura looking startled by the wall. Hinata was already kneeling in front Naruto protectively while he sat up, blinking in confusion.

"Ah good, he lived. Wasn't so sure for a while there." The cloaked man said happily. "I was hoping you would, you're actually quite a remarkable specimen."

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed angrily, though his voice was still horse. "I ain't your damn guinea pig!"

"You don't find many with such a large amount of chakra at their disposal let alone one with a wind nature." He said, ignoring his complaint. "All wrapped up in a Kyubi jinchuriki. I'm lucky I was able to ketch just a fine specimen."

"H-how…?" Hinata asked, her eyes wide in surprise.

"Don't be so surprised. It wasn't that hard to figure out. Just like it's plain to see that you possess byakugan." She froze up, picking up on the open threat. I was surprised to see Naruto's eyes narrow at the statement. Even more surprised when he started getting to his feet.

"I won't let you hurt her."

"Is that so?" the man said, sounding almost amused. "Why not? Are you sweet on her?" Hinata turned bright red at the statement but Naruto didn't seem to acknowledge it. He simply finished getting up and them moved in front of her, their roles now reversed.

"She's my friend and I don't like when pieces of crap like you even threaten them. So you can imagine what I'd do to you if you hurt them."

"Is that so?" the man said with an amused chuckle. "What exactly CAN you do? I know you can't use any jutsu and you're too weak to try any tijjutsu. So what's left for you to try?"

I watched as Naruto's determination faltered.

"Just give up already." The man pointed out, with what he thought was the finishing blow. But I immediately knew he was wrong when Naruto's eyes narrowed with what he had just almost lost. Unfortunately, for the cloaked man, no one ever told him what happens when you tell this particular ninja to give up.

"Like hell I will!" he said, standing up straighter. "I'm an Uzumaki, we never give up! Dattebayo!"

"I see your still as strong willed as ever." He said, mostly to himself. "We're going to have to do something about that. Bring him with me."

The man spun around and started striding towards the door as one of the men opened the cage to fetch Naruto. I tensed as I watched the man walk in, grab my teammate's collar, and start to drag him out.

A mischievous glint in his eyes was all the warning he got before Naruto's elbow connected with his stomach. The man doubled over, only to have the same elbow connect with his face, knocking him to the floor.

My teammate darted out, surprising the other guard by taking advantage of a man's natural weakness. I winced, a little surprised as the man crumpled to the ground. Naruto usually wasn't one to fight dirty, he normally was the one aiming for a fair fight. On second thought, considering his aliments at this time, I guess using an obvious advantage like that was completely fair.

Naruto then charged at Ribbons, taking him by surprise by socking him in the face before he could react. Unfortunately, that's the only hit he was able to land before the other man was able to cocoon him in his ribbons.

"It seems that the chakra restrainer isn't enough to keep you dossal. I guess more restraining will be needed as well." He stated as Naruto struggled. He then turned to his fallen Hench men. "Once you two decide to get to your feet, you need to move the girl into the other sell while you install them."

"Yes sir." The one outside the cell said, his voice noticeably higher in pitch. If the situation wasn't so dire I would have been laughing my ass off. But even so, I couldn't stop a sly smirk from spreading across my face along with Naruto's satisfied one. He must be feeling pretty proud of himself right now despite the fact he was bound in a ribbon jutsu. But said smirk soon disappeared as the man began walking towards the door again. He began struggling as the man went out the door, taking Naruto with him once again.

I stared at the door until a shout pulled my attention back to the other cell where one of the men had Hinata around the waist. Her arms and legs were flailing as she tried to run after Naruto.

"Cool it chick." The guy said as he tried to restrain her. "You're boyfriend's only getting another exam. He'll be back in a few hours."

Despite his words she didn't stop fighting, though truthfully, I don't even think she heard them. I growled threateningly as he lifted her higher so her feet couldn't even touch the floor.

"Come on, let's put you in the other cell while me and my buddy do a few renovations on yours." My teammate must have heard him because she started fighting even harder. She ended up catching thug #2, in the same pace Naruto kicked him. Again he dropped like a brick in obvious pain and didn't look like he was getting up any time soon.

Thug #1 decided it was best to just put her down and drag her a few feet over to our cell. Ignoring his friend's pain.

"Stand back you two or you'll all get zapped." He threatened, finally realizing he had jutsus at his disposal. We stayed back, not moving as he unlocked the door and tossed our struggling teammate in before closing the door before she could get out. As soon as the door locked, Sakura rushed forward to try and comfort her.

"It's alright Hinata, he'll be back." She soothed, pulling her away from the bars so she couldn't bang against them. Hinata tried to fight before she gave up and started to cry into her shoulder. "They'll knock him out, do a few tests and return him, just like usual."

"Yeah, Hinata, He'll be fine." I said, once she quieted down a bit. "Whatever they do, he won't break anytime soon. He's still fighting. If you need any proof, look at No-balls over there. Between him and you, I don't think we need to worry about him reproducing. Ever."

"Shut up!" said thug squeaked, making Hinata chuckle as he got to his feet.

"Whatever you say, mouse man. But you should really take your own advice and keep quiet as well. You know, with your voice being about three octaves higher than anyone I've ever heard." I said as his face turned red in embarrassment.

I smirked and continued, getting my own form of revenge. Normally I'd kick his ass for hurting my teammates, but with the bars in the way, I've had to take different measure. This is something I learned from my sister, and never really had a chance to try it out. Though Hana has used it against me enough to know it works wonders.

"Seriously, I've heard six year old girls with lower voices that you. Even before Naruto's kick."

"Shut the hell up!" he yelled at me furiously.

"Come in and make me." I told him, smirking. I saw him actually think about it. Until he realized exactly what I was asking. All he did was give me another, short glair before turning back to the job at hand.

"Did you really think that was going to work?" Sakura asked.

"It was worth a try." I answered with a shrug as I turned back to the pair of them with a smile. "Anyways I was just trying to rile him up a bit."

"Why?"

"Well, Naruto and Hinata got the chance to kick him in the balls and since I wasn't in a position to do so as well I decided that insulting them would have to do. Plus if he's self-conscious about his voice the less likely he will use it."

"Wow, that makes sense."

"That better not be disbelief in your voice." I said with a fake glair.

"At least your animosity isn't aimed at us anymore."

"What?"

"You're not taking your anger out on us."

"Why should I when the people responsible for this are here?"

"Good point." Sakura nodded, glancing down at Hinata who had, at some point in our conversation, laid down and had settled into a fitful sleep.

"Wow, all that fighting must have really exhausted her."

"I think it has more to do with the stress in general." Sakura said quietly. "After all, her crush keeps getting taken away and experimented on."

"Yeah, I just hope they don't do anything else to him." I said as I sat down next to them. "I'm not sure how much more either of them can take. They're pretty strong but everyone has a breaking point."

Sakura nodded sadly as we lapsed into silence, watching the men work.


	8. Chapter 8

Hi everyone, Thanks for the reviews :) Here's a new chapter for you guys. Not much else to say so I'll just go straight to the story then.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

HINATA

I don't know how the heck I was able to fall asleep with all that happened. Luckily, unlike the other times I've fallen asleep lately I didn't have a nightmare. In fact I didn't dream at all. One second I'm listening to my teammates talk and the next I'm startled awake by the wooden door slamming open. That seems to be happening a lot lately. Again, one of the men, Tsuki I think, was carrying an unconscious Naruto over his shoulders.

"Get him strapped in and then we'll put the other one back." I jumped to my feet, wanting to shout at them, demanding what they did to my cru— uh, comrade. It took all I had not to, it wasn't like they'd give me an answer anyways.

"Sounds like a plan." We stayed silent as they ignored the fact we were even there. "You know I was actually surprised that he was able to stay conscious through most of the examination."

"Yeah I know. Though I don't know how he was able to do it. I mean there are ninjas stronger than him that passed out after five minutes. How he lasted five and a half hours out of the six I'll never know." The first commented, opening the cell door as stood there in shock. What had they meant by 'conscious'? He was supposed to be put asleep when they started, like we were before.

"Didn't he do the same for the first exam?"

"Yep, the boss decided to do the exam while he was conscious then as well. More as punishment for trying to escape than anything else." He said as he dumped Naruto unceremoniously to the floor. The rest of us were frozen listening to what the man was saying, not wanting to believe a word of it. "The boy didn't pass out till the devise latched itself onto his chest."

The new shackles were clasped around his wrists, leaving his arms pulled over his head.

"Oh well, maybe this time he'll learn. If not, there's plenty more that can be done, not even including the bosses dojutsu." Tsuki said as he chained Naruto's ankles together. "Now go grab the girlfriend."

"You do it." The other man, the one Kiba declared to be Mouse-man, said obviously not wanting a repeat of a couple hours ago.

"Fine, coward." He said as they walked out of the cell. "Now you two stay against the wall and you better not move till the door's locked again. As for you, girly, you better behave or we'll just leave you in this cell, and your little boyfriend will have to be left all alone. Do you understand?"

I nodded, not wanting that to happen. As the other man stood there, ready to incapacitate us if we chose not to comply, he unlocked the door. We made no move to fight as he pulled me out of the cell and lead me to my original one then pushed me in.

I stumbled a bit as the man slammed the door shut and locked it. I barely noticed as they left the room, I didn't even bother to figure out what they thought was so funny. All I knew was that Naruto was chained to the wall looking more beat up and bloody than he had the last time, and that he had been lying to us.

"Well, sounds like we've got a LOT to talk to him about once he wakes up." Kiba said, breaking the silence. "Guess I was wrong, he really DOES know how to keep a secret. Good thing we didn't make a bet or something, I'd be screwed."

"Kiba will you just shut up!" Sakura yelled at him as I heard her fist connect with his skull. "This is no time for your jokes!"

"Ow! But I was just-"

"Doesn't matter. Naruto could be seriously hurt!" There was silence for a bit as knelt next to him, having moved closer while they were yelling at each other. "Hinata. Can you check Naruto? Make sure none of his injuries are that severe."

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Silently activating my byakugan, I scanned him to check. On the outside, he looked horrible, but I was a bit relieved to see that underneath all that blood and grime, there were really only shallow cuts and bruises. There was no internal damage or anything that could be considered serious. They must have already taken care of the small wounds because as far as I could see they were already cleaned and wrapped. I turned off my byakugan and looked down at the floor in thought.

"Well? Is he alright?" I nodded. "No serious injuries?" I shook my head. "Then where'd all the blood come from?" Without a word I pulled down his sleeve to reveal the fresh bandages.

"But why would they do that?" Kiba asked, sounding confused. "I mean, what's the point of treating the wounds you just made?"

"Why damage the goods when they can still be of use." I stated quietly as I fixed his jacket. I knew the two of them were staring at me curiously but I didn't care. Instead I just sat down facing Naruto, settling in for my watch.

After a few hours, everyone was fast asleep, except for me of course. Even though I as pretty sure he would wake up eventually, Ribbons wanted him alive after all, I was still worried what he would be like when he did. He might not have been hurt much physically but after experiencing something like that, he could be suffering mentally.

Just as I was about to expand on this line of thought, I saw Naruto's eyelids twitch like he was starting to wake up. I looked at the other cage to make sure the other two were sleeping because last time I was coaxing him awake they kept looking at me funny. Even Naruto, who didn't even know what was going on at the time, was looking around like he was confused about something.

But those two were sound asleep so they wouldn't be looking at me like I grew a second head this time. So I turned back to him and his eyelids twitched again as I scooted closer to him so he could hear me.

"Naruto? Are you awake in there?" I said, the lack of stuttering making me sound like a completely different person. He twitched at the sound of my voice. I smiled and continued speaking to him, feeling a bit more confident. "I know you are. Now open those pretty blue eyes so we can talk."

He must have been listening because I saw his eyes struggle to open. It took him a while but he eventually got them open so I was staring straight into those baby blue eyes, which made my confidence drop like a stone. I knew there was no way I could keep from stuttering with him staring at me like that.

He looked confused, as he glanced around the cell, like he was looking for something.

"Where is she?" he asked, his voice at a horse whisper.

"W-who? S-sakura?"

"No, that girl who woke me up." He stated, slowly looking around the cell again. "Where is she?"

"T-there's no one e-else here, N-naruto-kun."

"But, I could have sworn I heard someone, some girl, say my name."

"I-I'm the o-only one a-awake." I tried to tell hm. He obviously didn't think that voice was me. It was probably better that way.

"Oh." He said, looking a bit disappointed. "I guess I imagined it again." We stayed silent for a bit before he spoke up again.

"Um, Hinata? If everyone else is asleep then why aren't you?"

"I-I'm on w-w-watch." I answered nervously. It wasn't a TOTAL lie, I was keeping watch…over him."

"Oh. What happened?" He asked, I gave him a confused look. "You know, after I left."

"I-I don't k-know. Y-you t-t-tell me."

"Uh, don't know." He answered hesitantly, then broke out into one of his everything's-good-even-if-it's-not grins. "We get knocked out, remember?"

I knew he was lying, his grin was too big and his tone too light. I've stalk…known him long enough to tell, I should have seen this before. I probably did and just chose to ignore it, I probably didn't want to except the truth so I believed the lie he told, just like the rest of them.

I don't know why but this just ticked me off. Now, I'm never one to get very angry but he was keeping stuff from us because he couldn't trust us with his problems, scratch that, he CAN'T trust us with his problems. And that just made me furious, which caused me to do something I thought I would never do in my life.

I slapped him.

The sound of my palm connecting with his face echoed throughout the cells, making me surprised that neither of the others woke up because of it. He face was shocked as he turned back to me, a red hand print starting to make itself present on his cheek.

If it had been any other time, or place I would have been shocked at my own actions and apologized immediately. But right now, my anger was in control and I couldn't help myself from chewing him out.

"You honestly think I believe that? That they even gave you the option of being put under? You really must be an idiot!" I yelled, no stuttering to be found in my voice. "Their main goal is to break us, to mold us to their will. If you keep this all to yourself those bastards are going to succeed! Do you want that?!"

"N-no, but…"

"No! No buts!" I interrupted, not giving him a chance to finish. "You lied to us! Your own TEAMMATES! We were there to help you, instead you choose to ignore us!"

I turned my back on him, not wanting him to see the angry tears that had started flowing down my face.

"Why can't you trust us?" I asked, my voice shaky. "You're supposed to trust your team when you're on a mission, Naruto. We trust you, why can't you do the same?"

I got up and walked away from him, having nothing else to say. I lay down in the opposite corner, facing the door. It was only a few seconds later that I fell asleep, my last thought being a panicked one that was trying to figure out what the heck I just did.


	9. Chapter 9

Hey, it's me. Thanks for the reviews everyone. As for the Kyubi chakra, yeah it's still in his system but he can't access it. The devise is not limiting the amount he has, only the amount he can use. He can't reach the chakra at all so even if it is Kyubi chakra, it doesn't change much. That's the way I saw it when I was writing it anyways.

Anyways, hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

KIBA

I was startled awake by the sound of something hitting something. At first I thought it was the door again, until I realized it was actually the sound of flesh hitting flesh, probably from a slap of some kind. I was just about to jump to my feet when I saw Sakura shake her head. She was wide awake, but not really moving except for the slight movement of her head, motioning towards the other cell.

Without too much movement on my part, I looked over at it only to receive the shock of my life. Hinata was yelling at Naruto. Hinata never yells. Ok yeah, she yelled at the two of us for being too loud when Naruto last woke up, but other than that one time, she NEVER yells. So I never thought I would be witnessing her telling Naruto off at a shout, without a stutter to be heard.

After a while she stopped shouting only to finish up her speech quietly, sounding as if she were close to tears, before curling up in the corner and falling asleep.

I looked over at Sakura to make sure I didn't imagine the whole thing. By the shocked look on her face I didn't. I silently asked her what to do, only to get a "nothing, go back to sleep" as a silent answer.

I shrugged and curled back up, figuring he needed to think on some things anyways. So letting them know we were awake wouldn't be a good idea. Instead I closed my eyes, letting sleep take over quicker than I thought it would.

A couple hours later, I was woke by the sound of shouting and chains clanging. I shot up straight to see the other cell open and Hinata being dragged out of it. The clanging had come from Naruto, who was straining against his restraints to the point that his wrists were bleeding.

The boy was shouting unintelligibly, even going as far as growling at the men that were hauling her away. I'm sure if they were close enough he would have bit them just because of the way he was right now.

Hinata herself looked startled, even scared at the thought of what was going to happen.

"Don't worry, lover boy, we'll bring your girlfriend back." Mouse-man said tauntingly. When Naruto only growled in return, the man shook his head and shut the cage door.

When the latch clicked, Hinata started struggling to get away from the men. She managed to dig her nails, which were quite long from our stay in this hell hole, into the side of mouse-man's face as soon as he was in range. He jerked back, his hand covering the four gorge marks she put there. He glared at her as blood already started to drip down his face.

"You little bitch." He hissed as he raised his other arm to slap her.

"You better not, the boss won't be happy if you hurt her." He said over the increased growling.

"It's not like it will kill her." He mumbled angrily, dropping his hand none the less.

"Don't worry, boss will punish her for breaking the rules." He assured him, the other man nodding in response.

"He better." He glared at her again as I noticed Naruto's face paled.

"You leave her alone!" He shouted, words finally becoming recognizable.

"Why should we listen to you?" he taunted happily. "It's not like you can make us listen to you, you're powerless."

Naruto looked stunned as the pair walked away smugly. They were half way to the door with Hinata before Naruto found his voice again.

"Wait, come back." He called out quietly at first, but then gained in volume. "Bring her back! Stop! Bring her back!"

The men just laughed as they dragged her out the door, ignoring our teammate's cries. Even several minutes after they had left the room, Naruto was still calling out, his voice beginning to go horse. Neither me nor Sakura had the heart to tell him to stop.

It didn't take too long for his horse voice to turn into violent coughing, to which Sakura finally put her foot down.

"Naruto, stop. You're going to make yourself sick." She said, her voice completely professional. He ignored her, opting to continue trying to yell as he coughed.

"Naruto! Stop!" she yelled, making him do so, if only from surprise. "They're gone, they probably can't hear you anymore. Shouting will just make you sick. And if you're sick, how the heck to you expect us to escape?"

"But…they took her." He croaked out in protest.

"I know. And they're going to punish her like you were punished." She said, trying to sound gentle. "They're going to keep her awake for whatever procedure they have planned for her, am I right?" he nodded slowly.

"Which brings up our next point." I said, trying to hide how angry this next subject made me. I think I failed in that regard though. "Why the hell did you lie to us about that!?"

"I…I didn't want to worry you." He said quietly, avoiding our eyes by looking at the floor.

"Great job with that!" I said, sarcasm coating my words thickly. "Instead of knowing why you keep getting more subdued as time goes on, you left us completely in the dark! Which do you think worried us more, huh?!" I went to continue when Sakura cut me off.

"Kiba, no matter how much I want to yell at him myself, I think Hinata's…lecture already made him see his mistake."

"You heard that?"

"Hard not to, especially after a slap like that." I said, as he looked down in response.

"I don't understand."

"What is there to not understand? We heard a slap and it woke us up it's pretty straight forward."

"No, not that. I don't get why she would do that in the first place."

"She cares for you." Sakura pointed out before I could. "We all do."

"Speak for yourself." I murmured quietly.

"Kiba…" she said threateningly.

"Fine, he's a good friend, wouldn't wanna see ya die…yadda yadda…a metaphorical ball of sunshine and all that BS."

"Kiba!"

"That's the best he's going to get, damn it!" I told her forcefully. "I'm pissed at him right now so he's lucky he's even got that! There's no way I'm going to sit here, fluffing his ego after he made Hinata cry from his antics!"

"She was crying?" The idiot asked, looking at us in surprise.

"Yes, moron, she was crying alright? You made her cry because you couldn't trust her like she trusts you."

"Why would she trust me like that?"

"Because she's your team-" Sakura began to say, but I cut her off, knowing that it wasn't going to cut it.

"She's in love with you man! She has been since academy!"

"Kiba! That was out of line!"

"I don't really care! If he hasn't figured it out by now, he won't. And if she hasn't TOLD him yet, SHE won't, and he needs to know!"

"Y-you're lying." Naruto said quietly.

"Like hell I am!" I exploded at him. "Have you ever wondered why she blushes when she looks at you? Have you ever wondered why she faints when you say certain things? Have you ever noticed that she has followed you around ever since you saved her from those bullies a couple months before we started the academy?!"

He looked stunned as I told him this. Almost like this information was too much for his mind to handle.

"You just think on that for a while. And if you still can't see why she was so upset then you're a bigger baka than we thought." I turned away from him, ignoring the glairs from Sakura until she knocked me over the head.

"What the hell!?"

"That wasn't your secret to tell!" she yelled angrily, looking furious.

"She would have never had the guts to tell him! Someone had to intervene!"

"You don't know that!"

"She's so quiet that if she DID tell him, he wouldn't know what to do, and would probably forget about it!"

"But you still should have kept your mouth shut!" she shouted, threatening to hit me again. "Now you probably broke his mind or something."

"It's not that bad, it will give him something to do while we wait. Plus, he needs to give what little of that brain he has a bit of exercise."

I turned away again, looking at her out of the corner of my eyes, sighing as the look I got told me this conversation was long from over.


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry the last one was a little late, my computer died two minutes before I could post it. Anyways thanks for the reviews, I always like to hear feedback. Here's the next chapter, hopefully if you had any questions it will clear it up for you.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

NARUTO

The pair of them continued to bicker as I just tuned out. I didn't really care what they were saying anymore, after all the damage had already been done so there was no point in arguing about whether it was right or not.

Though this DID pass through my mind at some point, it didn't stay for too awful long. It was soon over taken by the revelation that Kiba just hit me with. Hinata liked me. Not just liked me as a friend, but she REALLY liked me. She had a crush on me longer then I've known her.

Ok, that's not exactly true, Kiba said she started liking me after I saved her from those bullies. I remember that day, those boys were making her cry simply because they were bored. Usually when they were bored they'd go looking for me, but I must have been extra stealthy that day or something because they never found me. Since they didn't know where I was they went and picked on someone else.

I was usually alright with this, after all it wasn't me so who cared. But then I saw them making her cry and I know it was wrong. You weren't supposed to pick on girls like that, it just wasn't right. Iruka always said boys were not allowed to hurt girls, something about chivalry or bushido or something like that. But boys were supposed to protect girls, not pick on them. Well, unless they were enemy nin, but then they were ninja and gender doesn't really matter when it comes to that.

Anyways, when I saw this, I stepped in, distracted them by giving them a different target to beat up while her guardian found her and got her away. I started wearing my orange jacket the next day, not because I particularly liked it but so I was more visible. I knew they'd pick on someone else if they couldn't find me so I made it easy for them to do so. After all, they'd already shown that they'll pick on girls if given the chance and I couldn't always be around to stop them like before.

Of course I grew to love the color orange and wore it long after those bullies were kicked out of school. I had kinda forgotten why I started wearing it or even who that girl was. Now that I know, it explains a lot, I mean why else would one of my school mates follow me around so much?

Yeah, despite common belief I had realized that the stalking while I was still in the academy, it was kinda hard not to. But I couldn't figure out for the life of me why this was. Most people that did this were out to hurt me, but she never did that so I just ignored her, hoping it would resolve itself.

It was so obvious now, I can't believe I didn't see it before, all of it. I had a friend all this time, and never even knew.

It wasn't till halfway between our first meal and our second that Hinata was brought back. They dropped her off in the cell, but not without making comments on the fact she only lasted half as long as I did. I growled at them in retaliation, making them laugh as they left.

I wasn't quite sure why I was acting like this, growling and even having the urge to bite them if they got too close. I had a feeling that it was because of the fact that the Kyubi's chakra was not bound as well as my own because it couldn't combined with my own chakra anymore, instead it had started coursing through my own body. That and my own situation mirrored his so closely right now, the loose chakra was probably causing my own anger to be expressed like he's.

Whatever the reason, I stilled growled at the men at least a minute after they left. It wasn't till I was able to calm down enough to not growl, that I remembered Hinata was still lying on the ground.

She looked almost broken there, lying where those two men dropped her unceremoniously onto the floor. Her regular clothes were gone, replaced with a ratty shirt and pants that looked like it did nothing to keep out the damp chill in the air. It didn't bother to hide most of the bandages she earned either. The man had obviously decided that we were going to be here for the long run if he was steeling our clothes as well as our forehead protectors.

"Hey, Hinata, wake up." I said, my voice still horse from earlier. ""Hinata, come on, you have to wake up." I tried nudging her with my foot but it couldn't reach her no matter how hard I tried.

"Naruto, she might not wake up for a while. Let her rest." Sakura told me gently.

"But…"

"Let her rest. I can see from here that her breathing is regular and whatever wounds she has are already wrapped."

"But…" I stopped when I saw the glare Sakura was giving me. "Ok." My shoulders slumped on their own as I looked back at Hinata, wish she would wake up soon. She didn't deserve to go through something like this, she should be back at home, with her clan. But no, someone decided that me, Kiba, and Sakura couldn't handle this stupid mission by ourselves, like we have a million times before.

Now she was stuck here, being 'punished' by our captors for not behaving, just as I was.

For some reason this really pissed me off, just like those bullies I fought off years ago. Despite all the years that have gone by, I still believe it's not right to pick on girls, so as soon as I got the chance that man was going down, even in it killed me.

I sat there for a while planning how I was going to do just that when I heard a groggy moan from where Hinata was laying. The others perked up just as I did, so I knew I wasn't just hearing things. I looked over at her, noting a faint twitch of one of her eyelids.

"Hinata?" I called softly. Her eyes immediately snapped open and I knew that she had definably been awake for the exam. She wouldn't be looking so afraid otherwise.

Her eyes locked onto mine, as soon as I began talking. She relaxed a bit, seeing that she was safe for the moment. She then tried to get up, wincing even as she pulled up to a sitting position.

"Are you alright? They didn't really hurt you did they?" I asked eagerly, even if I knew they did, I still had to ask.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine." She said quietly, her voice hoarse. "Water?"

"By the door." I motioned with my head towards it.

Lucky for her she wasn't too far from it to begin with because there was no way I could bring it to her. She reached for the bucket, filling the cup and draining it quickly.

"Y-your still chained?"

"Uh yeah, apparently they don't want to take a chance with me." I gave her a small, everything's alright smile, she just looked away from me. The smile dropped off my face as I realized she was still mad at me.

"Hinata, what happened in there?" Kiba asked suddenly, making me jump. I had almost forgotten that the two of them were even there.

"Kiba! Give her some time! She just woke up, you idiot!" Sakura yelled at him.

"We need to know what they're doing to them and it's not like Naruto's going to tell us anything." They all looked at me to say something in my defense, but I didn't have anything to say so I just turned away.

"But still! You don't need to…"

"I-it's ok. I d-don't remember much a-anyways. I p-passed out pretty q-quickly."

"Ok, what DO you remember then?"

"The m-man with the r-ribbons did all the t-test h-h-himself. H-he made t-them…u-unnecessarily p-p-painful."

I tensed as I remembered what they had done to me. The overkill scalpels, the leather restraints strapped too tight, and the needles. Especially the needles, even just the thought of them now made me physically shudder.

"Do you know what they want?" Kiba asked her, getting my attention. I had heard them say something to me about some plan of theirs but with my brain being slow to begin with coupled with the pain I was experiencing at the time, I didn't understand a word of it. Heck I'd be lucky if I remembered what they even said.

"Yes, I-I t-t-think so." She answered softly. I looked over at her, seeing her gaze nervously into her empty cup.

"What is it?" Sakura asked eagerly. But she didn't answer as she began to run her thumbs around the edge of the cup.

"Well? What does he want us for?!" Kiba demanded forcefully, startling her. "Test subjects? Ransom? Brainwashed slaves? What!"

"An army."

"So they want to brainwash us to be their little toy soldiers? I don't think so!"

"N-not us."

"Then who?"

"O-our c-c-children."


	11. Chapter 11

Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews :) I thinks that's about it.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

HINATA

About an hour later, we were sitting in silence, everyone was trying to comprehend what I had told them

"So, let me get this straight." Kiba said suddenly. "Their whole plan is to engineer children by combining our DNA so in a little over a decade they'll have a small army of incredibly strong ninjas that are completely loyal to them. Am I right?"

"A-as far as I k-know." I answered softly.

"And they seem to be more obsessed with your byakugan being combined with Naruto's large chakra pools then the pair of us." Sakura pointed out as well, not needing to ask for conformation. But I nodded just the same.

"What kind of sick freaks are they?!" Kiba exclaimed angrily. "Brainwashing kids to fight their war? It's disgusting!"

"I agree." Sakura told him, matching his tone. "But we can't do anything about it now." He looked at me, obviously wanting to challenge my words but knowing he couldn't.

"We could at least try!"

"Kiba! What good is trying if…"

"Why aren't we dead?" I blinked, confused at Naruto's as Sakura would-be speech as cut off by his sudden question.

"What?" Kiba asked, looking at him strangely.

"If our DNA is the only thing they want then why are we still rotting away in here? We're no use to them anymore so why aren't we dead?" we all went silent, pondering this. He had a point. If all they wanted was DNA to create children, why did they keep us locked up? And even if they were going to use Sakura and I to birth the children, they wouldn't need Kiba or Naruto anymore. So, why are we all still here?

By the time the men had come with our second meal, we were all still trying to figure this out. At this point, they gave up finding reason and started eating the grull that was served. As I was eating, I noticed that Naruto was the only one not doing so. It should have been obvious why but my mind was still feeling sluggish so I took me a few seconds to figure out that he couldn't reach it. He probably couldn't even feed himself with his arms strung up like that.

So, knowing that I couldn't stay mad at him forever and that he had to eat sometime, I picked up the two trays of food and brought them over to him. I placed one on his lap before sitting next to him with the other on mine. He gave me a strange look.

"Y-you have to e-eat." I told him simply, not looking at him. I simply turned back to my own food. Neither of us spoke for a while.

"Uh, Hinata?" Naruto said, trying to get my attention. I looked up at him, letting him know that he had it. "I'm sorry."

"W-w-what for?" I asked nervously.

"You were right, I haven't been relying on you guys like I should." He said, looking away guiltily. "It's kinda hard when every person you DO rely on keeps getting hurt because of it."

I took this chance to study him. I could tell what he was saying was true, after all, he had just lost his sensei because he went looking for the Akasuki. Sakura got injured by trying to protect him from himself. Then there's Kakashi, who was, more times than not, being put in the hospital for chakra exhaustion whenever he was on a mission with Naruto. He probably even blames himself for the whole Sauske thing as well. It wasn't that surprising that he thought it was all because of him.

"I'm really sorry about…" he was forced to cut off when I shoved a piece of food in his mouth. I figured it was the only way to make him stop apologizing so I could talk. That didn't mean I didn't turn red when he looked at me in surprise.

"S-sorry." I muttered to him. "But y-you have to e-eat." I was silent for a moment before continuing.

"I understand s-so it's a-alright." He gave me another confused look. "And I-I forgive y-you."

"Weally?" He whispered around his food, sounding shocked.

"Now eat, y-you need to k-keep up your s-strength."

"Ok," he said after swallowing. "And thanks, Hinata."

"Y-your welcome." I looked down at the food in front of me, feeling my face heat up. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw him open his mouth to say something, but I was a bit afraid of what it would be. So I avoided the whole conversation in general by shoving more food in his mouth and I kept doing so every time he finished.

I'm sure he forgot what he was going to say after a while, instead trying to say something just to get more food. He turned it into a bit of a game, seeing how much he could say before I shoved more into his mouth. The most he was able to say was "Tsunade's got a big…" before I was able to stop him. He later insisted that he was going to say stack of paperwork but I'm pretty sure that was because Sakura was threatening him with a rock again.

When the food and chopsticks were finally taken away we were both fighting back chuckles. The two creepy men gave us a weird look but didn't say anything about it. After the men left we chatted for a while. Nothing important, just little things like what my family's like and which ramen is the best at Ichiraku's. I bet you can guess which one took longer.

Even with all the shuddering, Naruto had me beat by a lot. He could go on for hours about the different kinds of ramen, comparing the different tastes and textures. Then when he asked my opinion I had to tell him I didn't really have one. Though I know OF it very well, I never ate there. He looked at me shocked for a moment before simply saying that "were going to have to change that."

I couldn't help but blush at the statement. He noticed but for the first time ever he didn't insist that I was sick. Instead he only smirked and continued.

"After all, if were getting out of here we might as well have something to look forward to." He smiled the first real smile that I've seen since we got locked in here.

"T-that s-sounds like a d-d-date." I pointed out nervously, my blush deepening.

"Huh…you're right." He said after thinking for a second. "That reminds me, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"W-w-what is i-it?"

"Well…"

Before he could continue, the door slammed open making us all jump. On the otherside was Ribbons himself, flanked by his two henchmen per usual.

"Well, looks like our tow resident lovebirds are getting along quite nicely." He said, looking straight at the two of us and sounding extremely pleased. "That's good. It always is when intended parents have a good relationship beforehand."

"Bastard." Naruto growled, glaring at the man.

"If you don't agree I suppose we could just kill you." He said off hand. Scared, I grabbed his sleeve, willing him not to say anymore but I knew it couldn't work.

"W-why haven't y-you yet?" I asked before Naruto had the chance to.

"Are you eager to die?" he asked, turning towards me.

"N-n-no." I answered quietly. "I j-j-just want to k-know. W-we have t-the right to k-know."

"I suppose you do." He answered after some thought. "After all, you'd have to find out some time. We're keeping you around for the children's sake."

"What?"

"Do you really think I would waste precious man power to raise brats? Why should I when I can have the parents do it for me?" He continued as we gawked at him. "This way not only will I have elite soldiers fated to follow my cause, but I'll also have cannon fodder that care for them, train them, and even risk their own lives to keep them from harm. It's a good plan, isn't it?"

"No." I whispered while the others were too stunned to say anything. His head snapped back at me, his strange eyes narrowing.

"What was that?" He asked, giving me a chance to back down. But after hearing his plans for any future children I may have, I wasn't going to. I might not be the bravest in our group but there were just some things I couldn't stand and fate was one of them.

"I s-said no. I-it's a h-horrible idea. Completely i-insane a-a-and disgusting!" I told him a little louder ending in a quiet shout.

"You know, I was going to let the fact you broke one of my rules go. After all, it was a very good question. But now that you not only questioned me but blatantly disrespected me I can no longer turn a blind eye towards your behavior." He said, his eyes narrowed. "You two, grab her and bring her to the exam room. I suppose I can let her watch while I do that last procedure."

The two men nodded, reaching for the key as they stepped towards the door. Scared, I gripped Naruto's coat tighter, burying my face in his sleeve as I heard the lock open. I knew they were coming but I didn't want to see them. It was irrational and obviously not true, but I felt that if I couldn't see them and Naruto was nearby, then I'd be safe.

I felt a rough hand grab my own coat as I clung even tighter. Just as I felt them get ready to yank me away some one spoke.

"Let me take her place."


	12. Chapter 12

Hi, thanks for the reviews everyone. Again, I don't have anything else to say.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

SAKURA

Shocked, I looked around and saw everyone looking at Naruto with a look similar to mine. Even Hinata looked up at him.

"Excuse me?" The cloaked man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll take her punishment. It was my question to begin with."

"Whether it was your question or not, she was the one that asked it." The man said simply. "So, whether you want it or not, it is not your punishment to take."

"I don't care, I'll take her punishment!"

"Fine." He said with a shrug. "You need one anyways if you think you can boss me around. Bring him with us instead."

I watched as the still outstretched hand of the flunky retreated, opting to grab the keys instead. Hinata looked horrified as she stared at Naruto. He noticed this, turning and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry Hinata, I'll be fine." He told her, looking her straight in the eyes, causing her to blush severely and look close to fainting. "After all, they already said they don't want me dead."

The man unlocked the cuff while the other one held a kunai just in case Naruto had anything funny planned.

"Let go of him." They ordered Hinata, she still had a death grip on his jacket and didn't look like she was going to let go anytime soon. The man raised a hand threateningly as he started to say something else before he was interrupted.

"Hinata." Naruto spoke quietly but stull getting her attention immediately. "You can let me go. I promise to come back and I always keep my promises. Datteboyo."

I barely heard her whisper "You better" before letting his jacket with shaking hands. Naruto struggled to his feet, almost falling back to the floor several times before gaining his balance. He took a step towards the door and stopped a moment before reaching towards his jacket. The two men had more weapons in hand before the zipper was half undone.

Naruto simply gave them a "what the hell's your problem" look before continuing what he was doing. When he had the jacket completely off he them took a single step before dropping it on Hinata's shoulders.

She looked at him wide eyed as he looked away awkwardly.

"Uh, can you keep an eye on that for me?" he asked her. "I don't want them to wreck it anymore then they have." She stared at him for a moment before slipping the coat off and starting to fold it in her lap.

"You know, you can wear it…if you want. Since, you know, they took your coat and all."

She blushed again before nodding and proceeding to put her arms through the sleeves that are obviously too big for her. He glanced back at her, smiled again before heading out of the cage, leaving the guards still very much confused in his wake. As soon as he stepped out of the door, ribbons came out of the man's sleeves wrapping themselves around his torso to the point where the only movement he could produce was to walk towards his own torture session.

"Aw, now isn't that touching." Ribbons said, looking straight at Hinata. Shocked out of her thoughts she looked up at him, meeting his eyes. No sooner had she done so did she fall to the ground screaming as if in terrible pain.

Kiba and I were at the bars in an instant, trying to figure out what was wrong as Naruto strained against his own restraints.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Naruto yelled. "I'M SUPPOSED TO TAKE HER PUNISHMENT!"

"I'm well aware of that. But your own had to be dealt." The man said calmly, never breaking eye contact with the screaming girl. "Do you see her? Your girlfriend, she's in so much pain, her whole body hurting more than she can bare. It is your fault. She's suffering all because you decided to break the rules."

By this time, Naruto had stopped struggling, obviously taking what he said to heart. He looked pained as he watched Hinata suffer.

"Remember this, boy." He whispered to him. "Remember her pain every time you even think of trying to break the rules again. Because if you forget, if my laws are broken by you again, I will soon remind you of it. And for every reminder I give, her suffering will worsen."

He only then looked away from Hinata, letting the poor girl pass out before turning to look at Naruto instead.

"Is that clear?" he asked him, getting a small nod from our teammate. "Good." He spun on his heals before walking towards the door dragging a broken looking Naruto with him. He didn't even wait for the men to finish locking the cage door before leaving the room intirely.

Kiba and I watched stunned as the pair followed their leader out, trying to understand what we just saw. Of course we knew what he meant and all that but everything happened so fast. Things went from cute, awkward flirting to screaming and terror before we knew it. But as soon as those doors shut, we knew we had to check on Hinata.

"Hinata!" Kiba shouted, turning his attention to her cell. "Hinata are you alright? Answer me please!"

"Hinata!" I yelled as well, trying to get some sort of response from her so we knew she was still alive. "Hinata!"

There was suddenly a gasp from the other cage, before starting to cough.

"Hinata!" Kiba cried again, but sounding more relieved this time. I saw her wine at the sound of his voice so I quickly covered his mouth before he could shout anything else. Once she stopped coughing and was breathing normally again she began slowly sitting up.

It worried me when I noticed the way her arms shook under her weight until she was mostly upright and leaning against the stone wall behind her.

"Are you alright?" I asked her softly. She looked up at me, looking a bit surprised. She nodded slowly after a moment, not even wanting to speak. "You're not hurt or anything?"

She gave me a tired look before mumbling "ache" for an answer.

"So you're not physically hurt at all?" I asked, just to make sure. She nodded again in response. "That's good, we were scared that something happened to you."

There was silence for a bit, as we all reflected on what happened. It was a couple minutes before someone actually spoke.

"W-where's Naruto?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Not here." Kiba said, shortly but still answered her question effectively. She looked down sadly, clucking his jacket closer to herself.

"H-how long?"

"Not too long. So far." I said quickly before Kiba could say anything else. "You've only been out for a couple minutes." She stayed silent, my words obviously not making her feel any better.

"He'll be back, you know." I told her gently. "They won't hurt him too bad, only what they can mend themselves."

Hinata didn't respond, opting to turn away from us and close her eyes like she was sleeping, even though we both could tell she wasn't. Kiba turned to me with a curious/worried look on his face.

"She'll be alright, I'm sure of it." I assured him quietly. "Give her a bit of time, she just went through a traumatizing experience and needs her rest."

He simply nodded and lounged against the wall though it looked nothing like the relaxed pose he was probably trying to pull off.

"She'll be fine as soon as Naruto comes back." I tried to assure him again.

"Sure." He mumbled, obviously not believing me. I opened my mouth to say something again but he interrupted me. "Whatever, I'm taking a nap." He closed his eyes, intentionally avoiding the conversation.

So I ended up taking watch while we waited for our teammate to return. Hinata eventually fell asleep, I could tell because she became restless, like she was having a bad dream.

Just like every other time Naruto was taken, they eventually brought him back after a few nervous hours. But unlike most of the time, Ribbons came in to.

As soon as the door clanked open, Hinata was awake and on her feet, her eyes solely on Naruto. He looked more battered than usual, his arms covered with bandages to the point where we couldn't see his skin. His clothes were also switched out to a ratty shirt and pants combo making the clean bandages stick out in comparison.

"Lock him back up." Ribbons ordered off hand, opting to focus his attention to Hinata. "Huuga, I'm sure you've noticed the fact that your little boyfriend's punishment was worse than normal. That's because it wasn't his punishment to bear, it was yours. So next times you think of speaking out of turn remember he could try to protect you again, and every time he does it will get worse."

The shackles clicked shut as the man finished his words. Hinata could only stare at Ribbons stunned at his words, probably not even realizing that Naruto had heard similar words about her.

She jumped as the cell door slammed shut, probably never even realizing that the door had been opened. The men left without another word, leaving the poor girl with her thoughts.

"Hinata, can you check on him?" I asked her softly. She didn't even move. "Hinata." Her eyes finally focused on me. "Can you make sure he's alright?"

"S-sure." Her voice sounded more insecure than usual. She activated her byacuagan, checking how bad the wounds were. "I-it's like last t-time, the o-o-only difference is t-that some of the c-cuts are d-deeper and there's m-more of them."

"But he's alright?" she nodded, turning off her dojutsu but never looking away from him.

"What was that all about?" Kiba asked, now sitting watching the pair. "He said the same thing Hinata as he did to Naruto. What was the point?"

"He's using them against each other." I answered quickly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Neither of them responded well to threats to themselves, he noticed this. He also noticed that Hinata cares for him a lot, while Naruto doesn't want any of us to be hurt." I tried to explain to him. "So instead of controlling them with pain, he is trying to keep them in line been by threatening to hurt the other every time they break the rules."

"So he's breaking them." He said, his voice clearly angry.

"He's trying." I agreed sadly. "And if he keeps this up, it will work."

"Why isn't he trying to do the same for us?" He asked, curiously. I thought on this for a moment before answering.

"One of two reasons. Either he's too busy with the more important project…"

"Or?"

"Or he's decided not to keep us."


	13. Chapter 13

hi, sorry the first one's a little late. Don't really have an excuse either since my classes were canceled. Anyways, Thanks for the reviews :)

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

NARUTO

I don't quite remember at which point I passed out. My dream was so similar to reality that I couldn't figure out which was which. There was no escape for me from either which made it even worse. It was right when he took out a saw the length of his arm when the voice started talking to me again.

I realized that this was my dream when I heard her asking for me to wake up. This time I was sure that I was going to see who she was. She sounded so nice I needed to see who it was. So I struggled to wake up, trying to throw off sleep just in time to see Hinata speek and the ladies voice coming out of her mouth.

"So it's you." I whispered making her jump. She was looking away so she hadn't noticed I was awake yet. She spun around towards me, definitely looking startled.

"W-w-what?" she asked, her confusion making her stuttering worse.

"I kept wondering who was trying to wake me up. I didn't think It was you though." I continued quietly, my voice felt rough so I wasn't sure if I could talk any louder if I wanted to. "You're voice sounds so different without the stuttering."

She blushed but didn't say anything. After a few minutes of silence, I opened my mouth to say something but started coughing instead. She gave me a worried look before grabbing a cup and filling it with the liquid our captors call water.

"Thanks." I said, maneuvering the chains so I could take the cup and drain it's contense. I winced a bit at the taste, not having gotten used to it in the least.

"I-I'm sorry." She said so softly that I wouldn't have heard her if it wasn't silent in the room.

"Why? It's not your fault they give us bad tasting water." I said confused.

"N-no, not that. T-they hurt you b-because of m-m-me." She wasn't looking at me, instead her eyes were firmly attached to the door.

"I should be the one apologizing." Her head snapped up, looking at me in surprise. "If I didn't bring up that question, none of this would have happened. You shouldn't feel guilty for any of this."

"But he said…"

"He told you the same thing he told me, didn't he." I said, not bothering to phrase it as a question. She gave me a confused look, obviously not knowing exactly what speech he gave me. "He told you it was your fault I was punished again."

She looked away, nodding slowly.

"He's trying to use us against each other, you know that right?" She nodded again so I continued. "We shouldn't let him. We shouldn't give in just yet, you know why?"

"N-no." She mumbled, still not turning towards me again.

"I haven't taken you to Ichirakus yet."

"B-b-but w-why does t-that matter?" She stuttered, still not meeting my eyes. "Even i-if we got h-home safe, and w-went to i-ichirakus t-t-together, its n-not going to c-change anything." Her voice became progressively quieter till the last part was barely a whisper, but I still heard it. I stayed silent for a moment, trying to think how I was going say what I was thinking.

"The thing you have to know is that I'm an idiot." I said gently, hoping I'm saying this right. "Not only that but my social skills are horrible mostly because few people ever willingly had a civil conversation with me till I started proving myself. And as far as that body language and secret meaning stuff, I barely had a clue that it existed at all before ero-sensei got ahold of me. Even today I still have trouble with it, people have to tell me straight up if they want me to know something." She gave me a confused look that told me I was failing in my explanation. I sighed and got to the point.

"What I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry I never really noticing you in the academy, or that you liked me." Her face turned so red that I could see it even though the room was dark and she had her face to the floor. "Don't pass out or get mad or anything, Kiba told me a yesterday, I think it was yesterday, when he got mad at me. But that's why I want to take u to ichirakus, because you have such strong feelings about me when I barely know anything about you at least not enough as I would like to."

"R-really?" She breathed, like she didn't dare believe it.

"Yeah, definitely. But just so you know, I can't promise I'll start feeling the same about you as you do bout me because I just don't know. But I'd like to at least see for myself, and if it doesn't work out at least we can be good friends. What do you think?"

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Why w-would you g-go through a all that j-just for me?" She asked turning to look at me again.

"Because I want to." I said with a real smile, one of the ones that rarely ever made an appearance. "You were the only person to like me for who I was before I proved my loyalty to Konoha. The least I can do is get to know you better." Before I could even tell if I was explaining myself correctly she tackled me with a fierce hug. I winced a bit but didn't let her see it.

"Thank you." She whispered, her stuttering gone once again. "Thank you so much."

"No problem." I whispered back, maneuvering my chains so I could have at least one hand hugging her back. "It's the least I can do." Not long after that her breaths deepened, indicating that she was definitely asleep. So, instead of waking her so my other arm wasn't stretched out I just let her sleep. I already knew I probably wasn't going to go back to sleep myself, even if I somehow got comfortable, so I stayed put figuring a least one of us could get a decent night's sleep.

We stayed like that for hours, long past the point we're there was any feeling in my arm. I looked up at it a couple times, barely noticing the blood slowly making its way down my arm, but other than that I pretty much ignored it. I've had far worse wounds than a raw wrist, and I know I will again in the future.

During this quiet time my mind had wandered in random directions, from Hinata, to ramen, to our kinda-date, to the bugs on the cell floor, to my poor abandoned plants at home, to the growing number of bugs on the floor. Then back to Hinata and her team, then the bug guy that was on her team, shuga or ino...ok, not ino...oh well, I'll figure it out later, and how they used these bugs to communicate on one of the missions I was on with them. Then I noted how this pile of bugs were shaped like the kanji for sunflower...which was Hinata.

My eyes grew wide when I finally realized what it meant, or thought I did anyways. I gently shook the girl awake and spoke before she could realize then faint about the fact she fell asleep on me.

"Hinata, are those the bug guy's bugs? Because if they're not then I think I just found the flea circus." I said, pointing, as best I could, towards the bugs literally calling her name.

"Shino's kikaichū!" She exclaimed her eyes wide as well. "N-Naruto, do y-you know w-what this means?"

"Uh, that Shino figured we were lonely so he sent us some friends?" I asked, dumbly.

"N-no, that Shino's h-here, p-probably with some h-help." She said with a smile.

"Guess I'm going to be able to take you to Ichirakus sooner than we thought." She blushed but didn't faint as I smiled back. "I'll wake the others as you're writing a reply. You have that stuff for the reply right?"

"Y-yes." she said softly, pulling her shoe off only to open a secret space hiding inside the heel. "We each h-have them j-just in c-case."

"Good." I said as she started writing a reply. "Hey Sakura! Kiba! Wake up! You're not going to believe this!"


	14. Chapter 14

Hi everyone. Thanks for the reviews :) Here's a new chapter, it's a little long...actually it's about twice as long as normal but I figured you wouldn't want me to stop in the middle of the action. I'm also warning you that this is the second to last chapter. So tomorrow you'll get the next one and a one shot that takes place after this. There will be a sequel but I haven't started it yet.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

KIBA

For the first time in a couple days I was actually getting a decent night sleep, or at least I wasn't dreaming of Akamaru dying like all the other times. But then the idiot started yelling for the rest of us to wake up.

"What do you want?!" I said groggily as I sat up, glaring at the blond. "It better be important or I swear you'll be wishing it was."

"Look!" He said, pointing awkwardly to where Hinata was playing with a pile of bugs.

"They're bugs, Naruto. Not something to wake us up over."

"T-their Shino's bugs." Hinata said not looking up from whatever she was painting on the floor.

"But shino's not here..." I started to say before I realized why they were so excited. "You have the messaging stuff."

"Y-yeah, a bit." She said smiling. "E-enough to tell h-him were here a-and alive."

"Sweet! We're getting out of here!" I cheered happily before getting hit over the head by Sakura.

"Shut up baka! Do you want to alert those guys of our back up?!"

"No." I mumbled, rubbing my soar head. About then, the bugs flew away in multiple directions, each finding their own way back in order not to cause reason for suspicion.

"There." Hinata said slipping the now empty container into her shoe. "W-we should h-hear back in a c-couple minutes."

Then, after an eternity of waiting patiently, though they told me it was more like five minutes but oh well, the bugs started coming back, writing a message again in the dirt. It read the following:

/good, sending someone in. Won't be long./

We were all sat there, silently celebrating our imminent escape. We didn't dare shout out again for fear of the guards that could overhear. It wasn't long after that we heard a couple thunks outside, and the door started to open. We all tensed, seeing the signature black coat on the other side.

The man stepped forward, he being a guard we have never seen before. He had black hair hanging right below his shoulders. His eyes were a dark color which only accented the bored expression on his face.

"You four are troublesome, you know that?" The man asked, standing here bored.

"Shikamaru?!" Sakura exclaimed.

"You didn't recognize me, did you." He gave us a look as we all shook our heads. He muttered troublesome once again before pulling out a set of keys and started trying to unlock the cells. "That's what I get for letting Ino steal my hairband."

He unlocked outdoor, earning a hug from sakura.

"Thank you." She said ending the hug soon after. He just shook his head and turned towards the other cell and freezing.

"Let me guess, you've been causing trouble again, haven't you Naruto."

"How'd you guess?" My chained up comrade said as he smiled sheepishly.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer." Shika murmured as he began to unlock their cell as well. The door opened with a loud screech unlike ours did. We winced, hoping no one heard I as he went inside, searching for the key to his cuffs as well.

It didn't take long to find the smallest key in the bundle and unlock the baka's cuffs. He hissed in pain as his arms dropped limply to his sides, his wrists rubbed raw from his struggling. Sakura moved over to his side quickly, her hands glowing green, no doubt preforming some sort of diagnostic jutsu on our teammate.

"You really are an idiot, you know that." She said with a sigh. "You stretched out the mussels in your one arm while your others not far behind, your ribs are still fractured, and not to mention I'd consider you lucky if you have any skin left on your wrists at all."

"Sorry, Sakura." He said sheepishly. I stood guard for a bit while she worked on fixing the blond's arms, not wanting to be surprised in the least. After a couple minutes the glow faded from her hands as she stood up.

"There, that should be good for now. Kiba, can you help him up?" I nodded, about to move into the cell as well before I was stopped.

"It's alright, I think I can stand on my own." He said, gaining unbelieving looks from pretty much everyone. Despite that, he still began to climb to his feet, leaning heavily on the wall for support.

"See? I'm fine." He said, as he stood there, his leg shaking slightly even with his hand still on the wall. "Let's go." He went to take a step forward only to stumbled when his foot didn't quite listen to him. Luckily, Hinata was there to steady him.

"I-I got him." She said quietly, she slipped his hand across her shoulder so it was easier to help him. Strangely enough, she didn't blush as much as she usually did when she was that close to him.

"Thanks" he said quietly.

"We have to go." Shikamaru stated eyeing the door wearily. "We don't know when they will be back."

"Yeah, we've wasted enough time here as it is." Sakura spoke up. "So, Shika, can I assume you know how to get out of here?"

"No." He answered while he headed towards the door. "But the bugs do. If we follow them well be fine."

"Great, were trusting insects to lead us out of here."

"You trusted them to relay messages to us, what difference is there?"

"True."

"Can w-we leave n-now?" Hinata spoke up, making us realize that the pair of them were already at the door, waiting for us. "I w-want to g-get out of h-here before t-they notice." Shika nodded before turning to me.

"Are you well enough to fight?"

"Of course!" I shouted before getting shushed by Sakura via her fist.

"Good, then you go first and use your nose to sniff the guards out." Shikamaru ignored the display. "Sakura, you're in back. Hit anyone that comes up behind us."

"With pleasure." She said with a sadistic grin as she hit her fist against her palm.

"I'll be to the side, ready to catch anyone who gets past you two."

"What about us?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"You two will be in the center making sure were followingSshino's bugs."

"That sounds like busy work to me."

"It is." I pointed out bluntly, making the blond pout for a moment before we got in our appropriate places and headed out.

It was quiet as we followed the bugs, like everyone was asleep for some reason. At first I was thought this was great luck. I mean, in how many escape attempts still haven't run into a single person five minutes after they left the cells.

But, of course I had to be proved wrong when my nose picked up several people down the hall. Before I could shout out, a group of five appeared around the corner, locking eyes with us.

"Damn it!" One of them shouted as I mentally echoed his sentiments. The man began flipping through hand seals, but I wasn't going to let him finish the sequence. Instead I charged the man, throwing my fist at his head, hoping to hit something painful.

He dodged the blow, almost throwing me off balance. I growled angrily, but at least he was unable to complete his jutsu. I was vaguely aware of Sakura and Shikamaru joining the fight as I stared down my opponent. Neither one of us wanted to look away so the other didn't get an advantage.

Then, a large crash filled the room making my eyes flick over to Sakura as she punched one of the guards through the wall. By the time my eyes were back on my opponent, he had his foot only inches away from me. Said foot connected with my ribs with such force that I heard several cracks as I was sent tumbling down the hallway.

Once I came to a stop, I laid there for a moment, giving my mind time to catch up with my body. As soon as that happened, I began to get to my feet, only for me to bite back a yell as the pain caught up with me as well.

It was then that a foot slammed into my back, pushing me back to the floor. The foot stayed there, continuously putting pressure on my already hurt ribs.

"You really shouldn't have left your cage." The man's voice whispered in my ear, putting more of his body weight on me as he spoke. "That's where the dogs stay after all."

"Screw you." I said through gritted teeth as he laughed. I struggled to get up again, only to be smashed into the ground yet again.

"I thought you'd put up more of a fight." He said, almost to himself. "Most experiments slated to be scrapped do."

"Scrapped? What the hell-" he interrupted my question by stomping on my spine.

"That means you and the pink haired bitch are going to die anyways, so killing you now will be more of a favor than not. After all, at least this way you'd die fighting like a true ninja, even if it was a pretty pathetic battle."

Before I could even think to struggle again, I felt the cool, sharp metal of a kunai against my throat, freezing any movements I was ever thinking of doing.

"You should really thank me for this. Most don't even get this much." He whispered in my ear. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the inevitable. It was then that I heard a growl and the force on my back suddenly disappeared with a crash.

My eyes shot open to see the man that was about to kill me being mauled by a huge white dog. A huge white, very recognizable dog.

"Akamaru!" I shouted happily, struggling to get to my feet. Akamaru turned towards me, barked then tackled me back to the ground licking my face. "Thank kami your all right!"

"Aww, how touching. A boy and his dog." Sakura said, standing next to the bodies of two unconscious me.

"Boy? I don't see a boy. Maybe two dogs, but definitely not a boy and a dog." A voice said, coming from down the hall. Only seconds later, Ino appeared with Shino and Neji by her side.

"What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked the three of them.

"We saw that you ran into some trouble, so we came to help." Neji said flatly. "But apparently the only one that needed help was Kiba."

"Come on! Why does everyone have to rag on me all the time?!" I demanded, barely sounding angry.

"Because of moments like this." Ino said, simply. "Akamaru took down your opponent faster than he took you down. And from what Neji told us, that's pretty impressive."

"Whatever, let's just go." I said, grabbing Akamarus fir to help me to my feet, but before I got that far my ribs started screaming, making me want to follow suit. I hissed and sunk to my knees, still gripping his fur.

"Alright, you ride Akamaru or we'll never get out of here." Sakura said, as she began to help me onto his back. "Now, Akamaru, try not to jostle him much, I don't have time to check how bad he is." My dog nodded his understanding.

"Where's Hinata?" Neji asked, making us all stop and look around. She was, in fact, gone along with Naruto. Seeing our confusion, he activated his bycugan, immediately searching the grounds for them.

"Do you see them?" Sakura asked, sounding worried.

"Yes, they went down the corridor to the right."

"Then let's go." Sakura said, starting towards the hallway indicated before getting stopped my Neji.

"No, you two have to get out of here. Ino and I will go bring them out as well." He said, sternly.

"I'm not leaving my only teammate in there!"

"It's our mission to rescue you, it's better if you let us do that job." Sakura paused for a moment, before nodding.

"Alright, Ino, help Neji get the other two." Shikamaru said, starting to delegate jobs. "Shino, keep a few bugs with them so they can make their way back here. Kiba, don't die."

I flicked him off as Ino and Neji took off down the hallway towards our teammates.

"Were already almost above ground so it won't be long now." He told us, starting towards the exit. "The faster were out of here, the faster we get home."

The next five minutes, we traveled up the corridor, rather painfully for me because of the ribs. It wasn't long before we were out of underground and could see the door leading to the outside

As soon as we saw the light from that doorway, we all started moving faster, eager to be out from under the ground. Sakura and I, being the only two in the group who haven't seen the sun in the past few hours, had to practically close our eyes just to insure we didn't go blind.

"We'll wait in the woods over there until either the guards go looking for us or the other gets out." We all nodded in agreement with Shikamaru and headed towards the trees. Not having to really having to move at all to get there, I closed my eyes in order to enjoy the non-musty air and the warmth of the sun shining.

I must have dozed off at some point because the next thing I knew I was laying under a tree as Sakura worked on healing my ribs.

"That's the best I can do for now." She whispered, in order not to bring unwanted attention to our group. "You're going to have to wait till we get to Konoha for the rest."

"Ok, thanks." I murmured as I sat up, finding it easier and a bit less painful to do so.

We sat there for a while, waiting for our teammates to come running out of there so we could leave. But as each minute passed, there was still no sign of them.

We sat there, twittling our thumbs for close to 10 minutes before anything changed. That was when the hundred or so bugs that shino left behind came zooming out of the exit in one huge swarm. Ok it wasn't huge, but seeing as they were supposed to be leaving in 5 bug groups, it was huge.

"What's wrong shino?" Shika asked, as the bugs reentered the hive mind and said teen processed what they were telling him.

"The personnel are leaving the complex." He said simply.

"Are they trying to follow us?"

"No, they're ...evacuating."

"Why?" Sakura asked, looking as if she had a bad feeling about it.

"Explosives, they rigged explosives throughout the underground."

"Damn, I should have guessed." Shika mumbled to himself before informing us of his revelation. "They probably figured that they wouldn't be able to catch us all, especially if we broke up into groups, so they're destroying the facility so they not only take out as many of us as possible but also so we don't know where they're hideout is anymore."

"But the others are still in there!" Sakura pointed out, almost desperately. But before any of us could say anything to her, there was a large boom and the ground began to rumble under our feet. The small hut that was our exit blew up, turning into small wooden projectiles. We each dove for cover, unsure whether they'd be able to reach us. A few of the splinter sized pieces imbedded themselves at our feet but other than that we were out of harm's way. We took a collective sigh of relief before realizing exactly what happened.

"NARUTO!" Sakura shouted, lunging for the rubble. It was all I could do to hold her back. "Let go! They could still be in there!"

"Sakura stop!" Shika tried to calm her down as I struggled to keep her from running up there and getting herself caught in whatever blast that had yet to go off. "Even if they're still alive, we can't get to them if the entrance is gone."

She still struggled to get away, desperate to help our comrades. But I didn't let go despite her elbows continuously jabbing into my still broke ribs. Shika was just starting to get her to calm down when Shino decided to open his big mouth. Sakura had to help her to our hiding spot.

"My bugs say there's life signs before the blocked off caves." This made the pink haired girl struggle so much I couldn't hold her back any longer.

"Akamaru, go dig them out." Shikamaru ordered as I pretty much collapsed back onto the ground, my ribs probably mirroring what they were before. He barked in agreement before darting over to the rubble, quickly overtaking sakura and was already digging when she reached him. When she got there, she started digging right beside him, eager to uncover our friends.

It wasn't long before they were able to uncover two people, one blond and the other a Huuga. But even from where I was sitting, I could see the disappointment on her face when Naruto and Hinata where not among them. Neji and Ino were both relatively fine considering they were just in an epicenter of an explosion. Neji had a few burns and Ino a broken leg so Sakura had to help her over to where we were hiding.

"We have to leave." Shikamaru pointed out as soon as they got back.

"But we haven't found Naruto and Hinata yet." Sakura protested looking about ready to head back to the rubble and start digging again.

"Tsunade will have to send a team out when we get back." He pointed out simply. "Over half of us are wounded or in an early state of malnutrition and need to be treated as soon as possible. It's going to take long enough to get home as it is."

"But..." she tried to complain, but couldn't find anything to say.

"If they're still alive, Naruto will be able to keep them that way till someone comes back for them. He's good at that."

She nodded in agreement, finally agreeing with us.


	15. Chapter 15

Hi everyone, thank you for the reviews. They were quite helpful throughout. Here's the last chapter. but don't worry, the one shot is going to go up shortly. Oh and I just started working on the sequel but I don't know when I'm going to start posting it. I don't even have the first chapter done.

Hope you enjoy,

Trouble 1  
~~~~~~~~

SAKURA

It was a week after we got back to Konoha that Tsunade finally called us into her office to be debriefed. Usually ninjas do so right after the mission is completed but considering the only two that didn't end up in the hospital were Shikamaru and Shino, she decided to wait until she could get the whole story. I'm not saying she didn't demand a summery from Shika as soon as we got back, just that she kind of needed the rest of us conscious to get the rest of the story.

So all seven of us, including Akamaru, stood in front of the hokages desk, waiting to be addressed.

"Now, as you know I sent a team to find the other two." She started getting our undivided attention. "Before I tell you what they found, I would like to know what the heck happened."

We all nodded before Kiba and I explained how we got captured and what happened during our captivity. Kiba described what the people looked like while I explained that though we never learned his name, we knew what they were doing, then explained that as well.

When it came to the parts we didn't know, like how the escape was planned, Shikamaru told her the strategy they used and Neji described how using his katten during the blast was the only way the two of them were able to live through it.

After we had nothing more to tell, Tsunade was silent for a moment, processessing all that was said.

"That explains the weak ground structure my team encountered." She murmured to herself, before clearing her voice. "Now, does anyone know why Naruto and Hinata left the group to being with?"

"As far as I could tell, he was fetching his forehead protector and Hinata went with him." Neji said simply. "They ran into some trouble and that's where Ino and I found them and eliminated the threat. He refused to leave without said headband so we ended up losing track of them. Figuring they would find their way to the shack, we waited there until the explosion."

"Of course he would." She said softly, starting to look her age despite the jutsu.

"What did they find?" I asked quietly, knowing it couldn't be good if he was acting like this.

"Not much." She answered after a moment. Reaching into her desk she pulled out two items that were almost unidentifiable. We didn't know what they were until she started explaining. "All they were able to find were Naruto's headband and his coat. There were no signs of Hinata, so she could have escaped, but judging by the state of both items, Naruto was caught in the blast."

She was right, the hiate, or what was left of it since there was just half of the plate and a scrap of black fabric attached to it pretty much spoke for itself. There was a good amount of blood visible on both the plate and the coat, which was missing most of a sleeve and pretty much its whole torso.

Each of us stood there in shock, knowing exactly what this meant even if my sensei hadn't caught on yet.

"Hinata had the jacket." I whispered quietly as if to myself.

"What?" Tsunade asked.

"Hinata was wearing the jacket when we escaped." I told her louder than before.

"That means they were both in the explosion..." she hesitated, looking at the coat and making the rest of the connections that we had already done. "There's no way they could have lived."

It wasn't till then that it actually hit me, emotionally at least. Yes, all of us knew this before she did, but my sensei coming to the same conclusion without any prompting really got to me. So before being dismissed or even another word I ran out of the room. I'm pretty sure I heard someone shout my name but I didn't stop, I had to get away before I started bawling.

I didn't know exactly where I was going, more because I didn't bother to stop and look around. So when I finally had to stop, I was surprised to find myself standing on the top of the hokage monument, more specifically the fourth's head.

With tears streaming down my face I sat on the ground trying to think of something other than my lost friend, but in able to think of anything else.

"You know this was his favorite spot." I heard someone say, I spun around to see a strangely serious Kiba coming over to sit next to me. I gave him a confused look before he continued. "Naruto, whenever he was upset or lonely or needed time to think he would sit up here and stare at the village below him."

"Why?"

"No idea. Asked him once, all he did was smile and said something like he never felt alone up here."

"How could he have just died like that?" I whispered sadly. "He's lived through so many different thing, most of which would have killed anyone else. He fought Orochimaru on several occasions, killed some of the Akasuki members, and even lived for the past 16 years with the Kyubi sealed inside him! Only for some no-name thug to capture him and kill him in a cave in! It...it doesn't make sense."

"Well, he always was unpredictable."

"Yeah, but unpredictable as in he's in a supposed to live through things he's not supposed to. Or...or accomplishing things in strange ways, not dying!"

"I guess you could say that he finally defied our expectation to defy our expectations."

"What?"

"If you think about it like that the whole situation isn't very surprising." He said simply.

"How could you say that?! He went up against things a lot tougher than him before..."

"Yep, and we all started expecting him to come out of it fine, whatever it was. But he's too unpredictable for that, as soon as we changed our standards for him, the tides changed and his never-ending well of luck went dry." He said simply.

"I guess you're right." I said with a sad chuckle. "He wasn't called the Number one unpredictable, knuckle head ninja for nothing. But what about Hinata? She didn't deserve to die like that."

"No, but I suppose it's better for her that way." I opened my mouth to protest only to be cut off by Kiba. "Now before you start yelling at me, just hear me out. Naruto was her life. Ever since he saved her from those bullies, she idolized him. She's followed him every chance she got, she tried to copy his never quit attitude, and even has the same nindo as him. So if she didn't die with Naruto, her whole life would have fallen apart. At that point she probably would have wished to have follow him."

"Your right." I said after a moment, finally seeing exactly what he was talking about. "To her, a life without Naruto wouldn't have been worth living at all."

We sat there for a while, staring out across the village as everyone continued on with their daily lives, unaware that the teen that has saved them all on several occasions, has died.

"Hey, Kiba." I said after a bit, he looked at me before I continued. "How did you come up with all that? You're not exactly the sharpest kunai in the pack."

"Hey!" he said with a fake glair before answering. "I was in a hospital for about a week, there wasn't much else to do other than think about everything."

"Understandable." I said, going quiet for a moment before thinking of something of my own. "You know, those two were going to go to Ichirakus when they came back. Naruto wanted to get to know her more before he decided if he wanted to date."

"Really? Huh, I would have never guessed that he'd actually do something about what I said."

"Yeah, but it's sad that they never had the chance to do so."

"Oh, you don't know that, where ever they are right now, at least they're together and who knows, they might be at some ramen shop right now doing just that."


End file.
